Science fiction
by Stg.Thibaultin
Summary: Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is merely transformed. Even souls are no exception. It's science. Grey/UchihaOC
1. Prologue

**By the way, I do not own Naruto.  
**

**Warning: French is my native language. Thus, I have some difficulty with English grammar. I'll apologize first if anyone feels uncomfortable, but it's too much work to have a beta. This fanfiction is my first and I am doing this for me, to improve my English skills and _more (especially to have fun)_. Let's be a little bit more understanding and open-minded. I'll try to make this interesting if you are along for the ride.**

* * *

**.**

**.**

**Prologue**

As soon as she opened her eyes, a smell like acid invaded her senses making her stomach soured with nausea. Her mind searched for flaws, swiftly analyzing her surrounding for any clues. However nothing was proving helpful as her vision was by some means distorted and dim. She flinched. Memories and knowledge suddenly flooded fast through her mind; images crossed together with unmatched voices, several deep-rooted facts on numbers, history of civilization, music, philosophy, art...

It was too much to take.

She forced herself to shut her eyes and concentrated on her agitated heartbeat and when she was calm enough to face the truth, this time, her eyes fluttered open more slowly. Much to her disappointment, she saw nothing but utter darkness. The panic returned, her hand clenching and unclenching as if she tried to grasp for something, for absolutely anything in her reach. Her shaky fingers traced down the smooth and soft surface underneath her body. She took a deep breath, overwhelmed with dizziness, as she listened to the unusual silence. However when she took a better caution, she heard barely calm, but audible breathing. It could only mean one thing; a person or maybe a few were in the same room, just a couple of feet away.

Unconsciously tears of joy felt down her cheeks and calls for help were immediately made to secure her safety as her sweating arms swung back and forth in the air. Actually no calls were hear that night because only a small whimper went out which absolutely scared her out of her skin. Panic raised up in her throat and her hands immediately came up to put pressure on it. Her body quivered involuntarily fighting back her snobs.

She heard a few uneasy whines erupting from the room and froze for a second before she allowed her natural instinct to take control. Cries were heard that were louder and louder with each passing second.

At that point she realized that everything was deeply _wrong_**.**

She was surrounded with babies; fragile, vulnerable, scared beings and along with them, she let out the loudest deafening scream drown in tears of fear.

.

.

.


	2. I: Sad soul and small ghost

_._

_._

_Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real._

**_-Tupac Shakur_**

* * *

**_._**

**I: Sad soul and small ghost**

**.**

**.**

She heard a faint knock, almost unnoticeable. She shifted and turned to stare tiredly at the door, where she assumed the knock came from. Slowly, she blinked once and then twice. The handle turned itself in a slow pace and the door swung slightly open, leaving just enough space for a little head to peak in. A slow smile worked its way across her face at the sight. A blanket was wrapped around the child's head and shoulders, making her looked like a small ghost. _Booo! _She almost said out loud. If only she wasn't fully awake, she would have done so. Too bad her daughter had never made things easy for her. Her smile faded and replaced with worry.

"Can I sleep with you?" Her daughter said, rubbing at her eyes with the heels of her hand.

She had been crying again.

Akane beckoned her over. She moved to the side to leave enough space for Neru to snuggle in. A few seconds later, a little ball climbed on the bed. Both of her arms then wrapped around the woman's neck.

"A nightmare?" She asked tenderly.

"No." Neru whispered. She could feel her tense up against her as she distractedly ran her hands in her daughter's fair hair.

"I'm here of you, always and forever, but _this_ has to stop."

Her child knew what _this_ meant. She couldn't always be alone, huddling in a corner, and refused to get out of the house. She couldn't always read books all day long as if it would show her some fragments of reality. There was a line between fact and fiction. Her isolation may have been the beginning of her aversion towards human contact, but Akane wouldn't permit this from going on further. Books were only books. It was nothing compared to the real thing. There was a whole world out there to be discovered and new places to see.

The world was bigger than her daughter thought.

"You can get through this, I know you can." She insisted. "Tell me what's wrong. What's bothering you?"

_No answer._

She had the impression that Neru had fallen asleep. She signed in exasperation and pulled the cover up to their chin. The last time she had tried to make her speak, Neru had cried in silence and refused to say a word. Akane believed that the Nine-tailed fox incident traumatized her child, to the point that ultimately she couldn't go out of the house to face reality. Two years ago, the demon fox had not only killed thousands of people, but also destroyed the village, and with it, their will of fire. That tragedy was deeply engraved in her memory, a trauma not easy to overcome.

"Hush…you are going to be alright." She then felt silent, not truly believing herself, because words like these were very fickle.

.

.

* * *

.

.

"What do you mean nothing is wrong?! She barely eats! She hardly goes outside-"

The doctor didn't even flinch at the furious voice of the young woman at the other side of the table. The only indication that he had been affected was the slight pause of his hand. He began to write again and adopted a professional expression.

"Well-Ms. Uchiha," He interrupted her. "There is no need to worry. Neru is a healthy child, physically speaking, of course. She possesses the symptoms of a slight depression. It's not that serious, you see. It will eventually go away with the right treatment. There is no longer anything I can do, except recommend you to bring her to a psychiatric."

He put his hands on hers with a trained smile. Akane looked up and stared into his eyes, actually into the reflection of his glasses; a _blue_ cloudless sky. And it made her felt somehow smaller.

.

* * *

.

.

_Orange. Furry. Whiskers._

It became apparent that Neru was obsessed with this particular_ cat_. She was now painting _it _on the wall of her room. Somehow, it didn't have a lot of resemblance with the Nine-tailed fox, which relieved her very much. It was even clear that it was just a _normal cat_. The orange paint slid slowly off her brush and splashed on the newspapers that covered the floor. Absent-minded, Neru's hand traced back and forth as if she was caressing that nonexistent cat's fur on the wall. She then reached into a box and withdrew, from among the acrylic tube set of paint, a green tube. Akane crouched down at the child's level and tilted her head in puzzlement.

"What's that?" She asked, pointing at a thin, flat and curved objet below the clouds. "A bird?"

"No, mommy," Her child said in a flat tone. "It's an airplane."

"Airplane," Akane pronounced each syllable slowly and carefully. "What's an airplane? What can it do?"

"A flying machine. It can transport people to different places around the world."

Akane snorted softly. Her child had a lot of imagination that was for sure. There was no such thing as a flying machine. If you wanted to go somewhere else, it was only by foot or with the help of a summoning animal. The latest innovation was not too long ago. Cameras nowadays were smaller and lighter like a chair. Plus, it could even take picture in colors.

_A flying machine. Really. That's impossible. _

"It's really special," She said in lack of anything better. "You did a great job at painting all this."

The entire painting on the white wall was, she must say, vague and confusing. There was more than a dozen of rectangular prisms with yellow or black squares. It was a strange structure that looked like a building. She could also see a sort of box with four wheels and two lights. Strange, but not alarming. It was like Neru had put different pair of objects together to create something out of the ordinary. There was also other things that she could recognize like a park, books and frameworks.

She scrunch up her face.

"Is that your imaginary friend?" She pointed at the end of the wall and her daughter followed her hand with her eyes. It was a young woman, maybe in the twenties or thirties. She had a black ponytail and a white dress that ended at her knees. Her eyes, her lips and her spirit all at once seemed to smile at her.

"No," Neru grimaced. "I'm not that desperate."

_Maybe, she is. After all, she don't have any friend to play with._

"Oh right. Who is she then?"

"Someone you might know."

Her eyes spackled. Could she make a friend without her knowledge? If that was true, then she had to go outside. Akane didn't know who she was speaking of. She didn't remember introducing her to anyone in this village, because she didn't knew a lot of people here. Konoha wasn't her birthplace.

"Mommy, she's right next to you."

She froze, felling the hair on neck stand up. It was common for a child to have an imaginary friend, she thought. She had heard a lot of stories in which the child ended up seeing paranormal entities and now, she hoped that it wasn't the case. Slowly, she turned her head to look everywhere around her. There was nobody, but her daughter. When Akane saw the glint in Neru's eyes, she signed inwardly in relief.

She would indulge the little tease.

"Well, hi there! I'm in your debt for taking care of my daughter. She is quite a handful. You deserve a cookie or two. Do you want some cookies with a glass of milk?"

Akane met an uncomfortable silence as she eyed around the room. A snort came to her ear and suddenly, her daughter doubled over, laughing. She had never seen her acting like this before. Neru was always so detached and to see her laughing made her wish she had a camera to capture this moment. The laugh lighted the room, and left her speechless and hopeful. She found herself smiling.

"You got me there!" She tacked and tickled her on the floor.

"No stop! Stop! I was-noAhh jok-" Neru brought her arms in front. She struggled to breathe. Her cheeks became all red and puffy.

"Ah my little pumpkin!"

"I'm not a pumpkin!" The child screamed. Her cheek got redder. She glared at her in disapproval. Akane muffled down a snicker.

"You are right, you are so much cuter."

"Oops." Neru huffed.

Akane felt something slimy. She brought her hand to her face and looked at it. It was covered in paint, in green paint to be exact…

She simply laughed it off. She was laughing with a glimmer of hope and she only hoped of normality.

.

.

* * *

_._

_._

_This doesn't make sense. _

Neru pulled her hair in frustration and frowned heavily. She flipped a page and then another. The fantasy book made even more sense than what was going on at the other side of the window. Neru threw the book on the wall and raised her head to peer once again between the curtains. It was like she had taken a time machine and returned to the past, but to no specific place on Earth that she knew of.

She ducked her head down when she saw a man entered the backyard. It was her biological _father_, but she didn't care enough to greet him. Having new parents was something she would never get used to. As soon as the man turned around, she took the opportunity to look back. There was this red and white symbol-_a fan_-on the back of his black kimono. So familiar and so stupid. She quickly brushed it off.

She was not having it.

She brought all her books together. It was all children's books with beautiful pictures in every page. She opened up a random one and deflated, much like a balloon without any air in it. Typically, a bedtime's story about a princess and a prince shouldn't have any ninja in it. Unfortunately, in every single story she came upon, shinobis were regarded as some knights in shining armour or in the contrary, the big bad guys. _Whatever._ Maybe in this universe, their culture was very _ninja-ish_. It didn't mean that it was what she thought it really was, right?

Right?

Well.

She might be in denial about everything. She wished she was more willing to believe in her illogical side, but as a down-to-earth person, she would keep questioning herself until her belief was beyond a shadow of a doubt. She wasn't even sure that the village had descended into chaos because of the Nine-tailed fox. She hadn't seen it with her own eyes, but rather felt the dark, omnipresent and suffocating tension, and energy in the air that day.

"Fuck." She cursed in a high, childlike voice. It was getting on her nerve the way she sounded. She was a grown up woman and this was so freaking scary.

_This is wrong. This is wrong. Everything is wrong. I think I freak out Akane._

She paused. Sadness returned at the sight of the painting she had done on the wall. She missed her real mom and dad, and her friends, and even _her stupid fat cat_. She missed her normal boring life. _See, _the girl with the black ponytail couldn't be happier back home than what became of her now. She was homesick and every time she thought of her family, it felt as though a cold hand was squeezing her insides. The new faces she had met looked indifferent and dreadful, perhaps even malicious. It was depressing, but she tried to not feel that way. Instead, she told herself that this was a new _chapter of her life_.

An adventure awaited her here.

_Once upon a time there was this ordinary girl with an ordinary life. We had already established the fact that nothing was special about her, but here and now, it was no longer the case. She was special the minute she was reborn. The lines of fiction and reality had already started to blur and intertwine while she thought in denial- she was not in Naruto. _

_._

_._

* * *

_._

**.**

**.**


	3. II: Monsters under the bed

.

.

_I feel half faded away like some figure in the background of an old picture._

**_― Iris Murdoch, A Severed Head_**

* * *

**.**

**.**

**II: Monsters under the bed**

**.**

**.**

Neru had been told that she was too pessimist, but she liked to believe that she was a realist. The smartest way to not become entangled in a dangerous situation was to avoid it completely. There would be no need to handle it if it didn't even happen beforehand. Simple. And so that was how she coped and that was why she had not left the house since the last attack on Konoha. Unconsciously, she had created an invisible barrier to keep her body within a false sense of safety, like a child who believed that his cover could protect him from the _monsters_ under _his bed_. Did he even wonder what was stopping them from snatching him and eating him alive?

_Sadism. _

Fear was like putting spice on the _meat _to make it more delicious.

She had thought of telling someone about _them_.

But-

"_There are no such thing as monsters,_" they would said.

They were unseen beings, hiding deep in the darkest corner of the shadow, waiting patiently for the perfect opportunity to show themselves. Once they were seen, they would drag you with them, break every bones and shatter the tiniest speck of hope left in you. She had to formulate her thoughts. The Naruto series was still unfinished. The characters were basically stereotype and the protagonist was the usual goofy hero that ended up befriending everyone and beating up all the bad guys. Let not forget that there were _plot twists and dangerous criminals. _The only Uchiha that would survive would be Sasuke and his brother was going to kill them all. What had she got herself into?

She didn't belong here.

It would have been all fun and games, if she had not been involved and if it had been just fiction. It had already been four years since her rebirth. She had plenty of time to think it through and so she was no longer at a loss to decide what needed to disbelieve. It was not easy to accept things as they were. If everything was true, it would have meant that she was going to perish in the Uchiha's massacre. She had no recollection of neither the date nor the time of that bloodbath. However, she was certain that it would take place when Sasuke would reach the age of eight. Neru looked down at her_ so _small and _so usual_ chubby hands and began to count.

The day of the nine tail fox attack marked Naruto's birth. Sasuke should be the same age as him. Her fingers slowly lifted up, one by one. She held up five fingers. There was a silence, the kind of silence that no word could describe when someone knew when they were going to die.

_Again_, in her case.

She let out a breath like she had just heard a bad joke. She had just got her second chance at life and realized that it was only too good to be true. She felt like _something_ was messing with her and couldn't help, but find it kind of funny. She was at a point when she was so tired that everything depressing was _hilarious_.

The upper corner of her mouth twisted upward.

"You are in a good mood today." Akane beamed.

"Uh-hum." Neru responded with a bigger smile. If only her mother knew of what she had been thinking lately, she would definitely not be this thrilled. "What's the occasion?" Neru cocked her head to one side. There was something special today, she could tell by the woman's attire. She was not wearing her usual red shirt, but a beautiful green kimono and her long wavy hair was tied in a bun.

"As new members of the Uchiha clan, we have been invited to attend-" Akane said.

"We?" Neru grimaced.

"Yes. We, for you and me."

"Do I really have to go?" She quickly shot down the idea of going out.

"It will be a _party_. There will be music, a lot of delicious foods and children. This time you can even make friends." The woman's voice was soft and sweet. _Real friends_ was left unsaid.

"No."

"I don't know how to refuse them this time." Akane said worriedly.

_How many times had she rejected their offer? _

Her mother had sacrificed her job and all her social circle to stay with her and help her get better. It wouldn't hurt to go out for a while, right? For this woman she could at least do to this much. It couldn't be that bad. When she stepped out of the house, there was a shift in the atmosphere just as though she had taken a big step in the right direction of life. It felt good, extremely good to be honest.

_One step at the time, _she thought as Akane held her hands.

As they walked silently through the clan's ground, she soaked up everything like a sponge, sensing that what she was seeing would prove valuable. Her eyes couldn't help to grow bigger when they reached a louder area of stores. The Uchiha had their own district with a great number of restaurants, business offices and bars. It was particularly exotic and she was enjoying the view very much. It seemed like she was missing a lot of things being copped inside, between four walls, all day long. Her excitement was cut short when her eyes landed on the clan's people.

_Judgement. _

It just had to be it. They were whispering not-so-discreetly to each other and each time she came close to them, they became mute. While she was shifting uncomfortably under their ogle, Akane had no problem ignoring the tension. She must have been oblivious to everything. The more Neru looked around, the more she noticed the difference between them.

They had pale skin and straight black hair. Her mother had mild dark skin and wavy hair. They were elegant, Akane was plain. They were dangerous and proud, but she was only a civilian. Akane was not originally from Konoha. She came from _far far_ away, the Land of birds. She used to travel a lot until she met Uchiha Anzen with whom she settled down. Speaking of him, she didn't see him that often. For a father, he might as well didn't exist.

"We are here." Akane's voice broke into her thoughts. She looked up at the enormous mansion and blinked in astonishment. There were trees lining up on the side of a small road, which lead them to the front entrance of the manor.

"Wow." She uttered.

"It's not over yet. You will be even more surprise to see what's inside." She felt like she was back in her world in the middle of a botanical garden. Everything was well kept and looked so clean.

"It's about time you show yourself." Immediately after those words were said, her mother was engulfed in an embrace. The stranger was a beautiful fair-skinned woman with long black hair and bangs on each side of her face. She wore a nice purple blouse and a simple red-plum skirt. Akane returned the hug. "You know I was quite busy those days."

"Yes indeed," The woman turned her attention to Neru. "I have heard. I am awfully aware of how hard the upbringing of a child could be. I have two sons myself." Neru took a step back and ran behind her mother's back.

The woman was _too close._

"Honestly, I almost thought that you are trying to hide your daughter from me." The new arrival frowned. "But, it looks like it's the other way around."

"I'm sorry, she's terribly shy," Akane placed a reassuring hand on her head. "Don't hide, come out and give a proper greeting."

"Oh, don't be shy." The stranger crouched down at her level and looked at her in the eyes. The corner of her mouth was slightly lifted up as if she was amused by her reaction. "Nice to meet you Neru-chan. I am Mikoto." The woman held her hand out.

_What the hell? Already._ She didn't know that it was that easy to meet someone that she _knew_ of. Kinda. She hoped that she didn't look that surprise. She should have recognized her sooner, but the woman looked too much like the classic beauty that she usually saw in the clan. Neru tried to smile and reached out as politely as possible, knowing that her sweaty hand was already a minus.

"Your hands are cold." Mikoto said, her smile did not falter. _Ouff _and she thought that Mikoto was about to said something else about her hands.

"Let's go inside. You must be freezing here."

.

* * *

.

When they walked through the door, someone sitting behind a desk stood up and bowed down at Mikoto. She then heard voices coming from somewhere not too far away from the main desk. As soon as they reached the room, she realized that it was not the kind of party she had imagined earlier.

There were a lot of new faces and it was intimidating.

The noise did not come to a stop, but reduced slightly by a notch. Many eyes were on them as they entered the crowned room, looking at them up and down. She hid behind Akane's legs, staring silently back at them. It was plain as day that they were unwelcome.

They were basically strangers.

She doubted that they were supposed to marry within their clan in order to keep their blood line for their Kekkei genkai strong. The discrimination didn't bother her that much. They were all going to die, together anyways.

Okay, that was just insensitive.

"Neru," Her mother warm hand was placed once again on top of her head. "Follow me and stay close."

She gulped.

Mikoto lead them to the center of the room. A couple of men were discussing about politics, maybe. One among them, which hold the strongest aura, seemed to possess much more power than the others.

"Uchiha-sama." Akane bowed low. Neru awkwardly imitated her mother.

_Keep calm and shut up_.

"Hn," He acknowledged their presences. "You have finally decided to come."

"I-"Akane raised her head up.

"There's no need to explain. We are delighted to have you among us today. Anzen unfortunately is on a mission. Thus, it's my pleasant duty to bid you a convivial welcome. Enjoy." Just like that, everything seemed to return to what it was used to be. Nobody looked at them anymore. Everyone minded their own business.

Urg-It went well. Fugaku was nice even though he didn't glance at her during the entire conversation. Whatever. She was right it was not that bad meeting those characters. She would just leave them be. But, she wondered about the real purpose of this meeting.

_Don't tell me they are really here to chill… together?_

Yeah, right.

Her tentative of eavesdropping on the grownups didn't even have the chance to begin. "There you are, why don't you go play with your friends?" Mikoto suggested by looking out at her backyard where a bunch of kids were presently throwing stuff at each other.

"I don't have friends and I don't need them." Neru said with honesty. She just wanted to stay with her mother and eat a lot of stuff. Mikoto's eyebrows lifted up and she shared a strange look with Akane. She then gestured someone to come closer. Neru grimaced the instant she caught a small boy behind her back, inquisitively peering at her. Mikoto gently pushed her son forward. He stumbled a little bit before he stood with a small grin in front of her face.

Neru tensed up.

"Dear, can you take Neru-chan to the garden? Be really nice to her."

"Hai." He answered.

She squeezed Akane's hand a little harder before she followed Sasuke. She forgot that the no-friend's method would merely work if she was an adult.

No one would have bothered.

.

* * *

.

.

There were about twelve children, between approximately three and eight years old. She could see one person dressed formally close by, watching over them. The minute she entered their circle, no one paid her any mind. They were all busy sucking their thumbs or something. She signed. She really wanted to get back in there. Had they gathered together for a reason?

She had to know.

A tug on her sleeve bring her to a halt.

"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked, curiously.

"Nowhere." She stared down at him. Yes. She was taller than him and maybe even a little older. She was perplexed. This was one of the main character. Here. Right next to her. And he had such a pretty face.

_I have to ignore him. I don't wanna get involve. _

She looked around and narrowed her eyes at their watcher. She needed to divert his attention elsewhere.

"Let's play hide and seek!" Neru yelled, enthusiastically with a huge grin.

"Okay!" A kid shouted back. "Let's play!"

That was how, a minute later, the crowd melted away after the signal of the game.

* * *

.

"Ready or not! Here I come!"

.

* * *

.

.

They were nowhere to be found.

The room she had been earlier was completely empty. It piqued her curiosity and she decided to venture further into the enormous traditional Japanese house. It was extravagant and the antiques (big vases, scrolls and swords on the wall) made her stop to look at them from time to time. She walked more than twenty-five minutes before she reached another section that was attached to the main quarter.

She lightly pushed a huge door and peered inside.

.

Empty. White walls. Small space. Small bed. No personal items. A little dusty; obviously the guest room.

.

* * *

.

.

Organized. Big space. Enormous bed. Wedding's picture.

It was the master bedroom.

Before entering, she throw some small pebbles, just to make sure that there was no ninja traps inside. Despite having children today, shinobis were known to be especially tricky. The rocks bounced and it went quiet. She slowly put a step in the room and then another. _Nop_, absolutely nothing happened.

_I think it's safe to go in. _

She climbed on a chair and scanned quickly the documents on the desk without touching them. Blank papers. Repair's investments? Some scrolls. Once again, there was nothing important. She didn't know what she was searching for, but she knew that now, it was the right time to invade someone's privacy. Her only benefit for being a kid was to feign ignorance about basically everything. Her eye caught a particular picture. The boy she had met earlier was smiling with Mikoto at his side. There was also her stoic husband, crossing his arms, as if it was a tiresome job to stay still and do nothing big. The last son with the emotionless face didn't seem to be enjoying much either.

This left her deep in thoughts. Those people was all going to die and she would also be one of Itachi's victims. She wanted to live, but she was too weak and she felt that she wouldn't be able to overpower him in the future. People spoke of him like he was a deity; how exceptional he was, how he was the best of the best among all genius. And what about her?

She had never excelled anything in her life, maybe in high school, when it only tested her memory. Somehow, she was terribly good at memorization, but for the rest she had to study a lot. She was the type of person that did her very best at what was thrown at her and get at least out of the situation. But, for this one, she couldn't save herself, for pity's sake. She couldn't even begin to think that she could save all those people. There were hundreds and hundreds!

She wasn't a hero.

Someone like her was more like a background character slowly fading in the picture.

.

.

* * *

.

.

Empty. Organized shelf. Small bed. Lack of personal items. White wall. Another guest room.

Neru headed straight to the book's shelf. Her finger gazed lazily on the spine of those books, which taught about the human's mind, war tactics and ninja's technique, like genjutsu and ninjutsu. It was all about how to _kill, kill, and kill._ Shortly, she passed a finger on a nightstand and looked at her digit.

No dust.

It was no guest room.

She froze and felt panic starting crawling through her veins. There was just something unnerving with knowing _when _you would breathe your last and worse, _who _would commit that atrocious act. She was in his territory, his resting place. She told herself that it didn't really matter. He was not here and she was just a kid. She had five years until it would occur.

"What are you doing here?" a sharp voice rang in her ear.

She sucked in a breath and ducked her trembling hands in her pocket. Her back was facing him. She didn't dare turn around. She couldn't speak.

"Who are you?" He said with a controlling voice. "Answer."

_Oh my god. It's Itachi. _

She was spun around to face him. The moment she looked at his eyes, she felt dizzy as if in a trance. His eyes were red with wheels moving slowly in circle. So this was the powerful _Sharingan _she had heard so much. His jet-black hair was pulled in a low ponytail and his face was so expressionless that she didn't know what he was thinking. This soon-to-be murderer was young, strikingly young. He was just a kid himself.

Then a cold piece of metal was placed right next to her neck.

"I-I am hiding-"She finally choked out. _Please stay calm. Please stay calm._ _You can do it._

_"_It's that so?" He said, calmly. The three dots in his eyes spun more fiercely. "From who?"

"Kids."

"I don't believe you."

The boy had paranoia. She was not a spy or someone suspicious! Oh, wait! The Sharingan! She remembered that it could mimic and predict a person's move. It had an incredible clarity of perception and it could aid the user for a careful observation of the body language. Shit-He could detect deception! But wait, she was telling the truth! No, she needed to _choose her words wisely_.

"Uchiha Neru," She answered quickly. "It's a game we are playing. Hide and seek."

It was all it took for him to release her. He stepped back to let her enough space to calm down as she tried to get a grip of herself in dismay. She could feel tears threatening to bust forth at any moment, but she fought them back down. She stared hard at the floor, refusing to show him any more weaknesses. By doing so, she caught sight of the stain of _blood_ on Itachi's sandal. A child was supposed to be innocent and fragile, but he had proved her that this train of thought was fundamentally flawed.

Uchiha Itachi would be first in her black list.

He had let her go without any explanation. She had come up with many reasons. She believed that her appearance did not match with those of the clan. She had Akane's traits. Her skin was a shade darker and her hair wasn't straight. She must have looked suspicious. This was an Uchiha's meeting after all. Maybe he saw her snooping around or he sensed that she was just plain wrong. Many years later, Neru would learn that today had put not only Itachi, but also all the Uchihas on edge. They had been relocated to a more secluded area, where they would not be able to protect the civilians in time. They were all frustrated and felt that the Hokage did not treat them right. They had many meetings to discuss and share news about the situation while Itachi had been forced to train harder and take more missions until exhaustion. He had followed his instinct when he saw her. Something was telling him that she would become a problem.

Neru was not where she was supposed to be.

At the moment, under an oak tree, she sat with her knees drawn up to her chin and rocked back and forth. Alone, she had a difficult time holding back her tears and hiccuped once in a while. She didn't care about anyone anymore. She just wanted to save herself and if she could, she would take her mother with her. She agreed that monsters did not exist; all monsters were derived from humanity. Fuck them all, if she couldn't get out here alive, she would die _trying._

Rather than a realist, she was a _dreamer_.

The laughter of children running reached her ears and she pressed her lips in a thin line.

"I found you!" Sasuke said with excitement, pointing a finger at her.

She pushed herself off the ground and dusted herself off. "I met your brother-"

"Aniki? He's back?!" Sasuke smiled. "He's really kind to everybody."

Before she had a chance to warn him, Sasuke had gone off.

"So naïve, so naïve." She whispered, looking at him running away in search of his older brother.

"You are already dead meat to him."

.

.

* * *

**.**


	4. III: Wish upon a star

_._

_._

_"I shall be gone and live, or stay and die."_

**_-William Shakespeare_**

* * *

**_._**

.

**III: ****Wish upon a star**

.

.

"When heaven and earth become one in harmony, you shall attain the spiritual balance and reach the ability of a state of inner peace…Blablabla. Get to the point." Neru read out loud. This book was supposed to teach her how to meditate and unlock her chakra. Instead of summarizing it in one sentence, there were fifty pages, written in small letters, on how to relax.

Well.

She had been training and studying alone for weeks.

She didn't learn fast enough for her taste, because she was juggling a lot of things at the same time. She had to master a new language and decipher what was written in those scrolls. It had a lot of big words and it didn't help that sometimes it spelled like goddam medieval poetry. Nevertheless, she had to remain in a positive frame of mind if it was possible. So running outside around the house was helpful in keeping her healthy. Her legs were aching now, but she speeded up anyways. She liked that her mind was completely empty when she ran. Well, not empty per se, but more like blank. Nothing mattered to her. She ran fast and faster, and felt that nobody could ever reach her as of now. There was just something so refreshing about this.

She felt so _free_.

When she completely stopped, with her hands on her knees, she breathed hard and her body arched really bad, but she was overjoyed. She had her answer; one thought screamed loud and clear in her mind.

She had to escape this place.

.

.

* * *

.

.

Taking someone's life was a crime, no matter how justified and reasonable her reason may be. She had been raised in a society with that sort of belief. Changing it so suddenly was impossible. Should she attend the Academy? Yes, obviously. She didn't have to kill. She simply had to learn how to defend herself and get all the skills to get the hell out of this village. Being vulnerable was the worst feeling that she had ever experienced to this day.

"Can you teach me something before I start the Academy?" The man Neru was asking for help didn't seem willing to accept her request. He was being his usual self; silent and distant, which made her nervous like always. It was clear to her that the newspaper that he was reading was more interesting than his own daughter.

A member of Konoha Military Police was exactly the sort of imposing figure that one might expect. He was a clever and physically striking man who projected an aura of authority. His pale angular bone structure held a hard expression even in the presence of his own family. But the most intimidating thing of all was the intensity of his gaze.

"Please?" She added, sounding more desperate than she'd hoped. Anzen was always on duty. Now, it was her opportunity to become stronger. If he was not someone she could use, she would have stayed more than a couple feet away.

A nod of the head was enough to make her sprint off to change her clothes. She should be delight to get what she wanted, but really she didn't like spending time with him at all.

.

.

* * *

.

.

Since she didn't have any experience in martial art or anything of that sort, she should be learning either how to punch or how to sense her chakra, but here she was, throwing kunais.

_Isn't that a little too soon?_

Her hand was trembling under the weight of the kunai and she threw it with all her might. It pounced out of the unmoving target.

"Throw it when your arm is at 90 degree angle," Anzen ordered with displeasure. "Use your body's weight to make it go straight and by virtue of doing so, it will pierce through the wood."

_It's easier said than done, mister._

She nodded and made a second try. As you would have thought, the result was the same. Anzen went over to her and adjusted her position by pushing her back up and moving her feet farther to the right. She stiffed at the touch but ignored it.

"What are you waiting for?" Anzen said in a powerful imposing voice. "Do it again."

For half a day, despite all her efforts, she didn't get any better. She assumed that the practice dummies were too tall for her to reach, but it sounded too much like an excuse. So she kept it to herself and endured her father's criticism.

"Euh… where are we going?" She asked, walking behind him. She winced when she nearly bumped into someone. Throwing kunai had hurt her right arm, which was visibly swollen and sensitive to pressure.

"We are evidently going to dine."

Just when she thought it couldn't get any worse. She had to stay with him a little longer than she'd hoped. She hold back a sigh and did as she was told. They entered a restaurant known as the Yakiniku Q and ordered a dish with a lot of beefs and onions. She uncomfortably sat in a cushion, close to a wide window and stared outside. Sometimes, she would glance at him.

Anzen had long black hair that reached his shoulder-blade and bangs that covered one of his eye. He wore a long-sleeved black uniform, and a flak grey coat that enveloped his warrior build and showed the Uchiha crest with all its glory. As opposed to him, she was average in looks. Personally, she was quite pleased. An average appearance equaled a higher survival rate. It would be easier to escape and hid when people overlooked her. The only apparent feature she received from him was his sharp onyx eyes.

She crossed her arms. The silence between them was nothing but uncomfortable. When the roasted beefs were served, she hurriedly inhaled the food. But with one look, she knew that she was screwed. He gave her a look that meant: "_Have you no shame?" _She would have dropped her chopsticks, so she settled for eating more slowly. To be frank, being with him was awkwardness at its worse form.

_This is going to be a long day. _

Neru sighed with relief when she stepped outside.

The sun was now below the horizon.

_This is almost over. _

_Weird. Where are we going?_ The pair walked past the training ground and the busy street on the other side of the Uchiha compound. They had already passed twice the same area, but she didn't dare to question or oppose him in any way. Hands in her pocket, she marched irritably and kicked an innocent rock. She was tired and they had been walking to _who-knows-where. _That was when in the corner of her eyes, she saw the boy who would become the Hero. The universe revolved around him like the earth revolved around the sun. He had bright blond hair and whiskers marks on his cheeks. He was alone on the swing with his head slightly downcast.

Uzumaki Naruto.

"Neru," Anzen said in a monotone voice. She snapped out of her stupor, realizing that she had been staring at him way too long.

"It's that boy, huh." The woman on her right whispered, looking at Naruto.

"He gives me the creeps." Another person murmured back.

"Coming!" She screamed and stole another glance at Naruto before running to Anzen. She couldn't afford to get involved with him.

_You have your own problems and I have mine._

_._

_._

* * *

_._

_._

Anzen had taken her to the Hokage monument, the one with the four faces carved in stone. He stood on the highest cliff while she took the liberty to sit down. She rested her chin on her palm, elbows on her tights, and stared at the village.

_Konoha is very beautiful up here. _

Neru tensed up as a hand appeared on her shoulder. "Yes?"

"You are distracted." Anzen frowned and retracted his hands behind his back. "Do you know where the Hokage tower is?"

Her eyebrows lifted up. He took her for an idiot or what? "Yeah, just there." She pointed at the red building, standing proudly in the heart of the village. Anyone could easily see it.

"What about the Yakiniku Q?"

She had no idea what he wanted, but she was going to give a try. "Block 21. It's next to another restaurant that is popular for their brand of sake. Eumm, Shishaya or something."

"Shushuya." He corrected.

"But that will do." She shrugged. She didn't expect him to ask her more questions about people and places she didn't know. He wanted her to be specific, but she really didn't know. He seemed to make a fool out of her on purpose. Tired and fed up, she almost shouted back. "I don't remembered! I don't know her name. I don't know what she's wearing today nor what she's doing in life! I don't know anything about the man in the back. Okay?!" She glared at him.

His face was void of emotion.

She had a distinct feeling that he was testing her, but she really couldn't do any better than this.

"We have walked in the village for exactly two hours, Neru. We have passed every shop and met every person, on which I question you. You should be able to give me the right answers. Can you do something right for once?"

_Woa so supportive, _she thought bitterly, clenching her teeth. He made her feel more than useless. She didn't like that. "Does it matter? I don't see the point. I am busy. I have more important things to do than looking at every little things."

"Details get people killed in combat." Anzen said harshly. "The way a person is dress will help you identify an individual's status in regard to social or professional standing. A spy want you to believe that he is someone he is not. Look for aberrations and misconceptions. The man in the back of the shop, despite not wearing any green jacket, remains a shinobi. You could tell by observing his maneuver and his physical build."

"He could be anyone." She refuted. "Like a black-smith or a peasant. The black-smith works for hours in order to create a weapon. A farmer works hard in the field to grow vegetables. Manuel labor makes people physically stronger."

"Excellent point." Anzen nodded.

Somehow, that little approval lighted up her mood-

"However-"He began.

_Or not._

Anzen's eyes narrowed. "His edginess for small movements reveals his insecurity. His position in the back has been strategically chosen to observe the site. You can never judge a book by its cover."

"But we didn't read the book. So we can't judge it without knowing the content." Neru crossed her arms. "You can't assume things like that. How can I know that I am not in the wrong track? It might all be nonsense."

"Whether you make a mistake or not, let it be either way since you won't or reasonably cannot ignore the sighs. Take precautions. Create more plans. The man was holding a fork and a small knife to cut his steak. Those instruments could very well be deathly in his hands. You have to think if you should stay away or protect those around him. Even if you are wide of the mark, the more you search for answers, the more you learn the truth behind his mask."

"I…I want a concrete proof."

"Then you have to search it yourself."

Her heart sank.

She had been tricked. Terribly tricked. Her face flushed. She lowered her head to hide her embarrassment. Now, she understood why they were walking in the village for hours.

"I am not pleased." His stern eyes pierced straight through her ashamed ones. "You have not reach an acceptable level of expertise. We have already established the fact that your sense of surrounding is nonexistent. Your taijutsu is mediocre as well as your fitness. Likewise you speed is neither the best nor the worst."

He shouldn't blame her for disappointing him.

_Blame yourself for expecting too much_, she bit back her comment. But, he was entirely right. She had to be extra careful and watch her back.

"Nonetheless you have potential." He said. "I will teach you and you will improve for I do not tolerate failure. Do I made myself clear _?_"

She held his gaze.

"Hai. I will not disappoint you."

Despite his cold exterior, Anzen cared about her, at least enough to teach her how to fight. She appreciated his support regardless of all the unnecessary remarks. He would be someone she would learn to respect. Neru stared up at the night sky, contemplating with wonder at the endless ocean of stars. The world was boundless, limited only by her imagination. There were unlimited possibilities out there and she had a good feeling about this. She would not give up her hopes and she swore with all her heart that she would get stronger.

She would figure it out.

"A shooting star," She whispered and closed her eyes.

_I wish I will escape Konoha with Akane and Anzen too. He's not that bad. If there's no massacre, that's even better. I wish that we can all be happy._

She smiled.

.

.

.

* * *

**AN: Thanks again **(っ◔◡◔)っ ღ

.

**29/10/2016- IMPORTANT! Hi everyone! I am_ trying_ to reduce my grammar mistakes and rewriting some parts. The next chapter had not been touched, yet. So it might not be good. Well…read at your own risk. **


	5. IV

_._

_._

_Choose your friends wisely-they will make or break you._

_**-J. Willard Marriott**_

* * *

.

.

**IV**

.

.

"Get up"

.

She obeyed by putting her hands beneath and shoved herself off the ground. She breathed in and breathed out, catching her breath and attacked. He dodged her with practical ease. She spun around and scanned the area to look for a way to-

SLAP!

She turned her head, looking at him with wide eyes as in thunderstruck and hands raised up to meet her burning cheek. "What-"

SLAP!

"Stop thinking" Anzen murmured.

She instantly stood up on her shaking legs, breathing hard. She pulled out a kunai and threw it at him. He didn't even move in inch. The metal simply hit the dirt like a piece of paper.

What could she say? She was good at aiming at what she was not not aiming for.

"You don't have time to think." Her body hit the ground once_ again and again and again_.

"Remember"

.

.

SLAM!

It gave her a sudden jolt. She immediately open her eyes, her back straight up. She lifted her head off her desk and found her teacher glaring at her. "Already sleeping on the first day of school? You should have stay home if you are not serious." He picked up the book that he slammed on the table before he resumed his lecture.

Snickers were heard around her.

She said nothing, gave a shrug.

"I almost forget about this…Everyone open your handbook at page 9." He caught the same girl looking at the window instead of doing as she was told. He groaned the name out. "Uchiha Neru"

"Read for us the second paragraph." He eyed her expectantly still her book was left unopened. "If you were paying more attention and listen in class, you would be able to answer my- "

"It's prohibited to assault another student to the extent of serious bodily injury without the supervision of any teacher. Furthermore, insubordination symbolize disrespect toward authority which is unacceptable. Those who do not follow the rules shall be expulsed and sanctions shall be applied."

The chunnin raised his eyebrow, a little surprise. "Do you know the student policies…by heart?"

"Hai" came the unexpected answer. Neru was forced by Anzen to learn the school rules and regulations to become the perfect student. Anzen as one of the arm of the law did not accept any disorderly conduct and Neru wasn't ready for any punishment he'd promised.

The teacher coughed on his fist, amusement glinting in his eyes. "Well that's splendid. But next time, do not interrupt me."

"I apologize. Please continue." Neru said with a straight face.

As the class agitatedly whispered and shot her weird looks, Neru absentminded, closed her eyes little by little to oblivion.

* * *

Neru wake up with a yawn and _plans._

She was going to draw a complete map of Konoha with all its vital post.

Everything had a weakness, even if it was unheard, unseen.

She was going to find out.

* * *

As the day become shorter, the leaves turned beautifully scarlet till it fall off the trees. Although when the sun rise, it often warm and bright, then cold at night. Those were sights of autumn.

Neru had made a habit to sit by the window, admiring the nature. It calmed her down.

The teacher didn't bother her anymore, at least not so much. If she succeed her exams, it was enough to convince him to let her be. It was a relief to learn that the children from the Uchiha clan excelled without exception in all the subject. They were home-schooled after all. Thus it was normal for a child like her to be better, smarter than her peers. Even though she'd show more than necessary, it didn't matter if she was known as a genius or not. If she restrained all of the openings to improve, she would definitely waste precious time to _get out of here_. That was something she couldn't afford anymore as Sasuke's fifth birthday was leisurely approaching. He would be eight when they would die. With only three years left, she was no longer afraid to manipulate the truth _for lying can feel so good_.

The more she appeared intelligent, the greater she get. Just like a knife, she shined from all the pressure they applied. She wasn't a weapon, _yet_. But the ninjas would not discard any latent weapons that they could sharpened till they covered by rust.

In the Academy, she was dubbed as the teacher's pet. When someone couldn't answer a question, the teacher would always ask her next. It was annoying at first but she become accustomed. She should be worried of the unwanted attention. However, after she had the chance to muse the pros and cons, she could only see a bigger gain. Her voice became a powerful tool to alternate her teacher's judgement. Likewise, Anzen had, by some means, heard of her good act and she was blessed with a scroll, the scroll of the Great Fireball Technique. Her fingers were itching to get home and learn the _damn thing._

She was impatient. Her index was irritably tapping the desk as the lecture of history absent-mindedly go in one ear and out the other. Nobody was listening and she thought about getting up and walking out the classroom.

The fast shift of paper and scribing made her turn her head toward the source of the noises. She almost forgot. There was only one single person who was too enthusiast for his own good: the Asian guy with the braid hair and thick eyebrows.

His hand was moving too fast for the paper to counter attack. She saw small clouds of smoke coming out of his sheet. His eyes gleamed with uh…fire?

The teacher signed loudly, looking at the clock.

Yes. The clock is ticking, the hours are going by, too closed to her deadline.

* * *

"Uchiha Neru" The teacher tapped his board with his pencil. He paused before he called out.

"Rock Lee. Please come forward."

They faced each other and made the Seal of Confrontation.

"Let's do our best!" He said with a bright grin before he backed away and adopted a stance.

"Fight!"

.

Lee didn't waste a second more to throw a classical punch in the face but she was fast enough to side track and twist her body to eventually kick his ankle. He retaliated by locking her knee with his own and tripped her. Her body instantly twisted to throw him over her shoulder. She stood back, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. She smirked. The match was going as she predicted.

She learned from Anzen that she didn't relied much on her intuition. He told her that she was thinking too much which made her pause too long. She had to strategize before the fight and imagined all the possible scenarios in her head but _during the battle_, every movement must already _be programmed_. Like a computer, she had to be ready to counter attack with the best move at the precise moment of time. But to be able to do so, she had to remember and installed all the necessary data in her hard disk.

Rock Lee was a little disappointing but it was no surprise. He didn't meet Maito Gai at this age.

_Punch. Tumble. Kick. Punch. Roll down. Okay next turn, dodge. _His fist was raw and red. She was sure that she was not the cause of it…_Did he train before coming here?_

Still she could not let him win. His performance was below average. His attacks were too predictable and straightforward, too much like his personality. If he raised his feet up, he would eventually kick her somewhere. Unlike his behaviour, she wouldn't mind deceiving anyone to reach her goals and she was doing it at the exact moment. As she swung her fist, Lee immediately put hit two arms in front of his face, a defensive mechanism that left himself wide open and vulnerable to the opponent. She stopped mid-air, spun around in a counterclockwise direction and used the weight of her whole body on the final move. She knocked the air from his lungs.

"You're strong-willed, I'll give you that" she muttered as Lee landed directly on the ground.

"The winner is-"The teacher was about to announce her victory.

"No! It's not over yet! I can still stand!" Lee screamed, but he failed to stand up properly.

.

"That's sooo embarrassing."

"It painful to watch. Why don't he quit already?"

"That's dock Lee to you!"

.

Lee was unfazed. He seemed to be more determinate and intense as the time goes by.

Neru watched the student's mockery in shock. She turned to face the teacher, clearly disgusted by their behaviours. _Do your job!_

He grumbled. "Lee, if you don't stand up in five seconds, I have no choice but to announce the winner"

"1"

"2"

"3" And Lee was on his feet before the end of the countdown. His legs were slightly shaking. Then he put them apart, adopting the academy's standard stance. He looked directly in her eyes and challenged. "That's all you got?! Bring it on!"

The corner of her mouth lifted up slightly. He was sure unstoppable. "Okay big boy. I'm waiting."

He backed away. She raised an eyebrow in surprise and then anticipation filled her features when he let out a war cry. Her muscles tensed up and he ran straight at her at full speed. She crouched down, preparing to neutralize the obvious throw-Then Lee….he tripped.

He tripped over a small pebble in a somewhat comical fashion and stumbled onto the ground, his face hit first.

…

.

Silence ensured.

...

.

"HAHAHAHAhahahahahhaha" The entire class cracked up.

…

.

Neru couldn't help but chucked as well. _Poor guy_. She was too caught in the moment. She didn't notice the glare Lee sent her way.

"Uchiha Neru is the winner."

"Are you alright?" She asked, offering a hand. He stood up slowly, not taking the hand.

She ignored it and compellingly locked her fingers with his own, making the Seal of Reconciliation. "Hey" at the sound of her voice, his head shot up. "I believe that you can do better than today." She thought that a few words of encouragement would make him feel better. However, he took them as sarcasm. "Stop right there!"

"Don't underestimate me! I don't know what awaits me in the future. But, I know one thing. **Nothing **and **nobody** will stand in my way as I rise to top! I will prove to the whole world what I'm made off!" He shouted, his eyes, vibrant but hard, burned like a flaming fire.

Then she knew that he was _one of those people._ "I have no doubt."

.

He watched her disappear among the crowd. His eyes bulged out, wondering if he had misheard or not. Because no one had ever believe him…

.

Until now.

* * *

"I am not hopeless!"

"Someone get the teacher!"

.

.

.

Lee looked at his fist then at Kenji who was wiping his bleeding nose. "How dare you!"

"I-I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you!"

"LIAR! Lies! Lies!"

"Real-really I did not want to-"He was panicking. The anger quickly vanished, replaced with a sudden regret.

"Are you alright?" One of the girl asked. The Inuzuka boy paused.

"It's just a little blood." He cockily answered with a wide grin and he winked, impudently.

"Uhh…I was not talking to you." She caught his eyes. "Are you alright Lee?"

"Me?" Lee asked, visibly taken aback by the concern. Uchiha Neru. A clan kid. She had the top grade and unfortunately, she was one of _them_.

"Who do you think I was talking to?" She questioned, a thin brow quirked.

"Wha-What are you doing? Why are you asking him?! He is the one who hit me!" Kenji moved his arm in the air with agitation and pointed at his injured nose.

"I can see that." She rolled her eyes. "It's about time. You are asking for it." She learned in to inspect. "So you are not hurt." She hummed, moving her head back. "Too bad stupidity isn't painful."

"You!" Kenji hissed. "You are taking his side!" He was fuming and marching up to the unfazed girl who murmured back. "Are you brain-dead? It's quite obvious."

"She don't have anything to do with us! Please leave her alone." Lee slid himself between the two of them, ready to make distance. Kenji's friend was holding the injured boy back from going near the girl. But after they whispered to each other, they backed away toward the entrance of the Academy's building.

"There goes our training buddies" She said, scratching her cheek.

"They are going to report it to the teacher" Lee signed. "We are in big trouble"

"We are not in BIG trouble."

"Maybe not you but I am going to be expulsed from school for hurting Kenji-san!" He exclaimed.

"Listen. You are exaggerating. Nobody is going to be expulsed from school. Who do you think the teacher will believe?" She said. He raised his bushy eyebrows in question. She smirked. "Before you broke his nose, we were sparing right?"

He nodded.

"And then the teacher stop all the matches and went away to do his business. Kenji is your training partner. So-"

"So?" Lee invaded her personal space by putting his ear too near her face.

She shoved him away. "So it was consentual. It was a _friendly_ match, an agreement among the two of you. So you did not **_assault_** him and you don't need any supervision and no rule is breach. Understand?"

"But…" Lee's face scrunched up with confusion "It was not consentual…"

"Then we will make them believe so. Our side of the story is more…how can I say, believable."

Then realization suddenly dawned on him. "I…I don't like lying." He took a step back.

"Lee, this is basically not a lie." A _half-truth_ his mind unhelpfully supplied. He didn't know what he should do... But if it was going to get him out of trouble, maybe…

"Good, now that you understand, do you want to spar with me? The teacher won't be here for a while."

His first impression of her was awful and it was still pretty bad, but Neru stood by his side and earned his respect. She had been his training partner ever since then.

* * *

Neru coughed, her hand flew to her mouth as her breathing stopped for a few seconds to prevent the dusk in the air to go through her sensible nose. After a few minutes, she continued her search.

Some old scrolls were piled up in a corner, patiently waiting to be open. There were also a lot of heavy furniture and boxes which contained decorations, books, clothes, broken records…She was able to navigate through the mess by relying on the rays of light, beaming thought the only window of the attic, creating elliptical patterns on the hard wooden floor.

_Gotcha _She took the old weapons laying on a wasted black nightstand and put them in her backpack. She would be needing them for tomorrow. As she was about to go down the stairs case, a box fall down a wardrobe. Neru slowly turned around. She was certain that she didn't bump into anything. _Creepy_

Neru removed the lid and browned through all the letters. Her finger lightly brushed against the "K" of the name written on top.

It spelled,

.

.

**Kokoro Romay**

.

.

.

* * *

**-Sasuke was taught at seven the Great Fireball Technique. So I think that it make sense that Neru will learn it at six. **

**-Kokoro=often means heart and sometimes ****_spirit_**

**-Anzen=safe**

**So how is this chapter? Let me know if something is confusing. :D **

**NEXT CHAPTER: V: The escape**


	6. V: The Escape

.

.

_The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead._

_**– Albert Einstein**_

* * *

**.**

.

**V**

**.**

**.**

The only thing that separated herself and the outside world was an enormous firm wall of stone and concrete. The ninjas guarding the entrance didn't even bother to look at her when she passed by, standing just in front of the gateway that had no physical barrier, but an open field.

She calmly walked toward a dark alley, set down her backpack to search for her map and rolled it on the ground. There was a lot of "x", which were areas she had already been.

After discarding impossible places to escape, she circled traumatically a blue space. Humans could build walls to protect themselves and station troops on the border, but they could never build it through **_water_**.

She inwardly nodded.

The Naka River was perfect.

* * *

She climbed on the rather high mountain surrounded by massive trees that were more than a century old if the enormous trunks were saying something.

As she reached the top, she was hit by a sudden whiff of fresh air. The yellow clouds due to the color of the rising sun reflected into the river like a piece of glass. The reflection was shattered by a vast splash of water coming from the waterfalls.

She stood there, stunned.

Then she looked at the surface below, it was deep, very deep. If she jumped in, it would be a plain absolute death.

She took her time to climb down until she could dip her fingers in the cold water. When half of her body was under the river, she began to count her steps, her hands tightly gripped the rope tied around her waist. She didn't went very far as her head rose to the surface to breathe fresh air.

She could get beyond the walls if she learned how to walk on water or if she had some floating materials. But she need a _boat_. No matter how dangerous it was, no matter how selfish it sounded.

She was not going out there alone _not never without Akane_.

She would drag her if she needed to.

But for the best of all, Neru had to convince her mother to go with the _flow._

* * *

"Show me how to do it!"

"No"

"Can I go next?"

"No way"

"Don't keep all the fun to yourself!"

"Don't bother me! You are-" and she lost her concentration. Her feet slipped and she fell. Before her skull could smash by the force of gravity, the ropes around her waist tightened up. She flopped herself into her back and stepped on a kunai pieced in the trunk. She signed in relief and glared. "LEE! Stop pestering me! How many times do I have to repeat myself?"

"You are being mean...I have to stay here doing nothing at all and you don't even want to talk to me." Lee said dejectedly.

"Maybe it's because I don't want to die with my head split in two…" She saw an apologetic look on his face and felt slightly bad. "I need you here. I am counting on you to help me before I slip"

"You can count on me! That's for sure!" The child exclaimed with a high-pitched voice, and Neru looked down in exasperation.

Walking on trees was difficult. For two days, she succeed on putting five steps. It was not dangerous enough for assistance. But now she was ready to go higher toward the sky, so if something happen, someone had to call for help. Lee was the candidate. He was the _only_ candidate on her short list of contacts.

On the other hand, she didn't count too much on him. That was the reason for all her equipment. She had reproduced a similar copy of wall rock climbing with the kunai situated on different areas on the tree. The piece of metal replaced the small lumps, jutting out of the wall, which would allowed her to hold on and to pull herself up. She also had some resisting ropes, gloves with silicone and a helmet.

"Can you teach me how you walk on trees…after you finish?" He asked.

He wouldn't be able to put a single step.

That was the reason behind her answer.

"Yes."

She couldn't waste any time.

* * *

"I am home." She said, taking off her sandals, tossing her backpack on a stand. She walked toward the kitchen table to pick something to eat.

"Welcome home…" Akane quietly responded when she reached the kitchen. "Neru you have to prepare your suitcase."

"What?" Neru sent her a strange look. Akane was tense and anxious. She was combing her fingers through her hair while her shoulders were stiff as stone. "Did something happen?"

"We are going to the land of Birds."

Neru froze. Silence was in the air.

_We are going to the land of Birds _

_Somewhere else, OUT_

A slight grin formed on the corner of her lips but she remained impassive. "When?"

"As soon as your father will be home. I think it will be tomorrow afternoon." Akane said as she neatly folded a letter on the table.

"Great! You can show me everything about your homeland. I never went outside! This is going to be fun!" the child bellowed her excitement out loud.

"Sweetheart, it's not a vacation..." Akane sadly said.

"Your grandmother is dying."

.

* * *

"And when will you return?" Lee expressed his disappointment.

_Never_ was on the tip of her tongue but it would only betray her eagerness to vanish from the village. "In a month max."

Then the child gave her a hug and pulled away as quickly as he came. "Be back soon."

"Sorry" It would be the last they see of each other.

"Huh?" He had a confused look on his face.

"Because you need a new training partner. I can't guarantee that you will find someone as awesome as me" The girl couldn't help but said, half-jokingly but also half-serious.

"Don't worry," Lee replied with a short bark of laughter. "I am enough awesome for the two of us. Don't you see? I practically GLOW with awesomeness!"

"You don't say."

They looked at each other and grinned.

.

* * *

"Let's head out." Anzen's strong voice rang in her ears

Before she knew it, she was beyond the **_walls_**_._

Her eyes gleamed with hope.

* * *

As they were far away, she glanced back. The wall became smaller and smaller with distance till it was no longer seen. When they entered a suspicious pathway covered by trees, compressed with slippery dirt and no distinct sunlight, she mentally prepared herself for the rest of the trip, concentrating on the hardest part: _To stay and never return._

With the little information she had gathered, she couldn't predict how her grand-mother would react to their arrival. The letter Akane had received was _fake._ Sometimes, she couldn't believe how easy she lied.

If the worst came to the worst, she would have to swim along the Naka River. Fortunatly, her initial plan worked unexpectedly well. She couldn't be happier.

She had written many sample of Kokoro handwriting, carefully analyzed each curve and swift.

However she would eventually get caught. Her plan had too much big holes. She had no idea if Kokoro lived at the same place or if she had already passed away…

As day turned night, they decided to stay at an inn. "I need to get us a room. I will be back in a minute." Anzen put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. It meant _protect your mother while __I'm gone. _

She became alert. She literally glued to her mother's hip. For the whole day, Anzen had to carry Akane on his back. Her mother was often exhausted and had to rest at every occasion they had.

"Mom do you want some water?" Neru fussed over the unusual pale woman. "Yes please" Akane answered with a smile. "Thank you" Suddenly, her mother face turned green. She headed instantly toward the washroom. Neru bolted and followed, but bumped into something soft and stumbled on her feet.

"Watch where you are going kid!" The man said, pushing her away with his belly. His hands were occupied by plates filled with foods.

"Sorry sir" Neru said.

From somewhere in the inn, a young lady with untamed pink hair shouted in their direction. "Hey fatso, come here! Don't you dare eat all the food without us!"

"I told you that he can't be left alone with any sort of food." She then said to her comrades. When the man didn't paid her any attention, she quickly dashed away and entered the washroom.

Her mother was throwing up. "I am not use to travel." Akane said, her arms wrapped around her stomach.

* * *

The next morning, Anzen bought a small carriage with two horses. Still Akane's headaches didn't appeared to cease.

A week later, they finally arrived at the Land of Birds. At the moment, the young woman was resting her head on Neru's lap while Anzen was leading the way. As they got near the gateway, she could see two shadows waiting for them. She intensely observed the conversation between the ninjas and her father. Documents were handed and questions were asked. After that, the ninjas let them go with no further inquiry.

The Land of Birds, located between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, was a small country. As she looked out the window, she saw a great number of houses made from palm leaves. The roof didn't appeared very solid. It might be blow by a whip of wind. But as they ventured further in, she realized that the wealth was in the heart of the country. It was definitely cleaner and livelier. Some buildings were identical from those of the Edo period, the era of the samurai, which looked very _expensive._

The market was boosting with people and merchants who sold jewelry, flowers and appealing foods. Neru was impressed and she looked excitedly around. "What's that?" She whispered more to herself, fixing at a man holding some strange sticks with black beads. He had a stand with different exotic fares. She couldn't put a name on most of what he was selling. "Oh that, it's a candy made from tamarinds. I used to eat those with my friends after school." Akane said all of a sudden, her arms encircled Neru's shoulders. Her mother was back to her energetic self. She chuckled, making Akane thumped the top of her in affection.

They managed to get out of the exciting mob to a quieter place where a temple stood on top of a high cliff. Neru went out of the carriage, stunned at what she was seeing. "You must be kidding me. There must be a hundred stairs."

"Good guess. But its five hundred and seventy-two steps if my memories are accurate." Akane said unperturbed, pulling a troubled Neru with her up.

"It is a good warm up exercise. You engage your hamstrings, quadriceps and glutes. You also improve your endurance and cardio. " Anzen emotionlessly supplied with a glint in his eyes.

She sent him a weird look. He was up to something.

"We will go ahead of you. Climb the stairs as fast as you can."

"What?! But-" She watched him hoist Akane in his arms with an uncharacteristic gentleness. "See you later!" Akane unhelpfully said.

"Wait! Take me with you! You have enough space for one more! NO DON'T!" Neru stood there, unmoving as they disappeared in a whisk of leaves and dusts.

She eyed behind and forward. "Seven done. Five hundred and sixty-five steps to go…"

* * *

When she reached the peak, Akane seemed to be waiting for her, sitting on the staircase, her hands on her head. "We search everywhere but she is nowhere to be found."

She bend her body and laid her head on her knees. "I don't understand. She is supposed to be lying in bed, covering herself with blankets and drinking nasty bitter medicine, not walking on three legs! "

"Mom calm down. You exhausted yourself too much" Neru tried to soothe her mother nerves by stroking her back. A pang of guilt tweaked at her heart.

"She is right. There is no need to overreact." Anzen appeared behind them. "Her body won't be able to tolerate too much movement. Ten meter is as far as she can go. "

"ARE YOU INSINUATING SOMETHING?" A sharp raspy voice clattered through the mountain, some birds flew away, and clouds were breaking up and being scattered by the hasty cold winds. Then a figure hiding behind the shadow jumped out of his hideout among the deep-rooted trees in the middle of the stone platform.

Unlike his strong powerful voice, he had a very small body. He wore a fine brown kimono with a black obi attached to his waist. The hood of his white vest hid his eyes from the others.

He pulled his staff up in the air and pointed at Anzen. "Oh my! It such an honor to have the **_almighty Uchiha_** bless upon us with his presence." He sputtered with the most mocking voice Neru had ever heard.

"MOTHER!" Akane instantly flew at the small figure and embraced her. There was a sound of something breaking. "You can't believe how worry I am! How are you? Do you have any virus? Chronic lung disease? Did you forgot to take your medicine? Why are you not in bed-"

"Let's me go!" Kokoro shoved her away and Akane tumbled on her feet in surprise. "I feel a little bit under the weather because give me some slack, I am **_old_**! But do I look like I'm dying to you?" She crossed her arms, irritation clear on her face.

"B-but the letter! It says-that you are DYING!"

"I never send any letter to you." Kokoro responded. "Apparently not after the last one, five, six, ten years ago?"

A painful silence took place.

_Do not play with your hair. Do not bit your lip. Especially-_

"Neru."

_Do not divert your eyes. _

"Hai Father" She looked dead straight into his eyes.

"Do you have any knowledge…of any of this?"

"No. Not at all." He definitely suspected her...

"Who is the little brat? Your kid?" Kokoro marched over. She eyed her up and down as she walked around in circles, eating her with her gaze, like she was prepared to jump and devour a piece of meat.

Neru shifted her feet, uncomfortable. It didn't took a lot of time for the old woman to become uninterested in the easy prey and shift her attention toward the only predator. "I thought that you have been cut down in pieces or missing a limbs or two with your bloody line of work. You have astounding skills to survive this long."

Anzen chucked quietly while Kokoro laughed alongside, a jolt of electricity flying between their stare down.

"I don't see anything funny." Neru murmured.

"Hn. I do not deserve such high praises." Anzen replied in a calm manner.

"There is no need to be _humble_."

"You have overestimated me. Fate and chance play an important role in my survival. My loyalty and my dedication have never diminished as I will continue to fight for my people and my village. I do not care less if I lose an arm, a leg or even my life. You have been alive for ages, safe under _our protection_, maybe you have forgotten to show a _little gratitude_."

"Careful now, don't let your brains go to your head. As you are aware, I have lived more than everyone here combined. I will still live a long and peaceful life. No matter how much my body is failing or how long I took to apprehend, _the depth of my insights are by no means lessen_. You _better_ _treat me with more respect, son_" Kokoro mocked.

...

"Oh dear." Akane tiredly signed. The atmosphere was tense. The sun was setting down as the wind blew fresh and cold. "Mom" Neru whispered. "Are they always like this?"

"Things never change. They hate each other." Akane closed her tired eyes for a moment before she gave her a resigned look.

"Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone." Anzen refused to back down.

"Did the mental hospital test too many drugs on you or _what_? Such insolence you are spu-!" Kokoro next reply was muffled as Akane took the opportunity to put her hand on the old-timer mouth.

"Forgive me mother, but this little quibble will never finish before the end of the night. So I better stop it this instance" Akane turned and peered at her husband. "Right? Let's stop. Everyone is tired."

"Hn" He said with one of his blank face, like the verbal confrontation had not occurred a moment ago.

"Can we stay in the temple? We don't have anywhere else to go." Akane pouted with convincing pitiful eyes.

After a few minutes, Kokoro huffed, crossing her arm in anger "Fine. But you better not create any mess in my temple! It's that clear?" After she got the confirmation, the three of them watched her slide with sloth steps in her abode without a second glance back.

.

.

* * *

Neru cleaned the old dusty windows. It was not her job, but if she wanted the affection of her obassan, she need to work her ass off.

"Do you want me to accept you as you are or do you want me to like you?" Kokoro once told her in a flat tone. She was about to throw her sponge at the old-timer face but she really wanted to stay. Then she became a house-no _Temple cleaner_ for many days to come…

.

* * *

"That room is off-limit. Get the hell away brat!"

She frowned, facing the old woman "I have a name you know. It's Neru. Call me Neru."

"Right," Kokoro barked and dismissed it with a flip of her hand. "Follow me." She turned around sharply when nobody was following her. "Are you deaf? I said _follow me_."

And Neru, a little bit annoyed, trailed behind. "Why? What do you want?"

"You are exactly like your mother. Asking too many damn questions." Kokoro murmured, unhappily. "Well you will see."

When Kokoro made herself comfortable by sitting on the floor, she took the invitation to do the same. "Show me your hand." Kokoro said with a businesslike attitude, her palm opened, hers fingers slightly bended.

Neru nodded. "Uh-sure, I let you read the lines in my hand if that's what you want. I didn't take you for a fortune teller."

"Ouch-_Why did you hit me_?" She hissed, clutching her head in pain.

Kokoro put down her staff away. "Again with questions." She signed. "Brat, I am a priestess not a fortune teller."

"Oh…okay." Neru held her hand out. Kokoro took it in her own. "I will ask you to be silent and by no mean, you will interrupt me." The old woman looked at her in a serious manner and she nodded.

.

Kokoro closed her eyes. The atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Something was travelling to the tip of her fingers like a blow of fresh air or cold water and their jointed hands glowed with a bright light. There were floating objects suspended in animation, a table, a lamp, pillows, papers... Her eyes were wide open. She had a brief moment of flat out panic before the voice of Kokoro interrupted her thoughts.

.

.

.

**_"_****_You shall fight with all your might and deliver two souls from the Arms of Death_**

**_As the war broke out, you shall face the fallen god, endless pain shall be all you have left_**

**_For you shall fail to save what matter the most_**

**_True love shall be your cost."_**

**_._**

**_._**

**_._**

**_"The end"_**

**_._**

**_._**

**_._**

Kokoro's words echoed silently between them for a moment, travelling all the way to her ears, sinking deep in her system. "The end?" She whispered, her whole body tensed up.

She felt ridiculous.

After she saw Kokoro serious face, she balled her fists and her body shook. It shook with _anger_. Kokoro had no purpose to trick her. It _ticked her off._

"Bullshit! Bullshit! _Bullshit!_ What?! Now you are a prophet, a seer?! Are you taking me for an idiot? Who will believe your crazy nonsense? You are a nutcase, you know that" She hissed.

"I have a gift" Kokoro's face was a serene mask like she was used to this. "Every man's life is a book already written."

"_Then what did you see_? Did you see _what will happen to me_?" Neru griped Kokoro collar in a death grip, her hands were shaking. She was so close to the old woman, she was sure that Kokoro could heard her heart pounding loud and clear in her ears.

"**_TELL ME_**" She screamed, ready to even choke the old fool."_What does it mean_?_ I will fail to save what matter the most?! Say something!"_

Kokoro peered down at her. _Like she don't give a shit._ "Tell me. _Tell me please_" She begged, wide-eyed.

Kokoro closed her eyes and took Neru's hands off. "Like I said before, every man's life is a book. I don't see image, but I see **_words_**. This is all I can do. I am also left in the dark, for whatever reason, I am not enlighten."

Neru had difficulty to calm down and to think straight. Her prophecy. _That was her prophecy_. "How can I change my future?"

"From my own experience, once a story has been written, you will live it at the beginning to the end."

Without further words, she sat up and swept through the door, slamming it shut as hard as possible.

.

.

* * *

That night, she couldn't sleep. Her thoughts were wandering back to her prophecy, repeating every word in replay, little did she know, the Sound Four were already in her trail with every intention to steal her eyes.

* * *

**.**

**.**

* * *

**This chapter is pretty slow but the next one will be actions, actions, ****_actions _****_actions_****_!_****At last! **

**Stay tuned!**

**.**

**.**


	7. VI: Escape 2

**_._**

_The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love._

**_-Jean de la Bruyere_**

* * *

.

.

**VI**

.

.

Birds were no pets who would bend to your desires. They were no items to be judged from prying eyes. As long as they had wings on their back, they were free to fly anywhere yet nowhere at once.

"~Aren't they beautiful?" Akane sing-songed and skipped over a sea of white doves which spited in two and flew gradually off the ground toward the cloudless blue sky.

Neru couldn't help but smiled at her mother's childishness. When Akane rushed toward her and wrapped her arms around her shoulder, it caused her to look up, her eyes encountered a blooming smile. She hugged her back without hesitation.

_You shall fight with all your might and deliver two souls from the Arm of Death. _It was a relief that her parents would be unbound from what would soon transpire. Nevertheless some worries still resided in the back of her mind. _Is there really a god? An incoming war? Literally or figuratively?_

She detached herself from her mother and hopped over a wave of birds. It ripped apart like millions of paper, flying all over the place, and glimmering with delicate shades of varying color under the sunlight. She turned around and challenged. "Mom! Come get me!" They played like children, chasing in circles, laughing as they shoved each other.

She twisted around once again. But this time, as the birds flew up and completely hid the view of her mother, she had this suffocating feeling to be back behind the enormous _white _wall of Konoha.

At a strikingly slow rate, the wall collapsed and small ray of daylight peered through the small cracks. At that exact second, she screamed…Well she _tried_ really hard as hands chained her down. It clapped over her mouth, her waist and her legs, pulling her away in a _cage_.

Really, Neru was not jealous of them, _birds_. In contrary, she had no desire to be like one, because humans often forgot that birds were not meant to be caged for their exquisiteness.

* * *

Neru woke up with a sudden start, a tide of fear rose in her chest. Her legs and her hands were tied together, leaving her unable to move. _Akane?_ Agitated, she peered narrowly around the forest, searching for her guardian. But the thump on her head was making her lightheaded.

"_Oi_, Sleepy head is waking up!"

Her breath hitched. She flicked through the appearance of her four kidnappers. The first person she recognized was the imposing ninja with an orange mohawk towering over her. If they went as far as to kidnap a child, it would not be because she bumped into the man.

"She don't look like an Uchiha." He said, frowning.

"Look at her shirt, it's their clan's fan."

She cursed the Uchiha for their pride and ego. The clan symbol was a red flag, a warning of impending doom for those who dared cross their path, because it was intended to be identified. In her case, it was asking to be killed or to be _sold_.

"My family will definitely give a high ransom if I am in one piece. But it would be better for all of us if you release me, my father is not to be taken lightly." She reasoned, hoping that the bandits were particularly greedy or smart enough to take the warning at heart.

The pink hair woman snorted. "We don't want any money, brat."

If she was confused, it didn't show as she forced herself to remain calm. "What do you want with me?"

"There is nothing you need to know-"

"We are going to give you to our lord as a lovely gift." The dark-skinned ninja interrupted the conversation, his mouth twisted into wry smirk.

"Kidomaru! Don't say anything more!"

"She need to know what will happen to her, Tayuya."

Neru paused, recalling something in her distant memories. As she looked up at the man grinning down at her teasingly, the metal plate on the purple headband gleamed under the faint light of the fire camp. It flashed a familiar music note and so the yin and yang symbol on the hem of their tunic finally clicked together.

"Whatever." Tayuya bit out, eyebrows narrowing in a dark scowl as she walked past her and leaned into a tree. "It's not like she can do much in her position. She is as useless as a fish on the ground."

"Good. I am glad that's sort out. _Now, now,_ I was about to explain…" Kidomaru said. "…about Lord Orochimaru!"

It made her guts twist. "You might have already heard about him. But don't believe those rumors. He is not as cruel as people made him."

_I can't believe they are so delusional_, she thought.

"Orochimaru-sama is a great man. Because of him, we are treat like human beings, something nobody else did. He save us from misery and treated us with nothing but kindness."

"You are _pitiful._" She said, her eyes widened a little, realizing that it was too late to take those words back.

Tayuya kicked her in the guts. Neru crouched in a foetal position. "Shut up bitch! What the hell would you know?!"

A shinobi with grey hair turned to face her, grinning ear to ear. "Show us the sharingan."

She gulped, opening her mouth and slowly closing it. "Answer me when I am talking to you."

"I don't have them." She said and added "For now." _Just to be safe._ "But my father definitively have them." If Anzen was not going to her, she was going to _him_.

The Sound four looked at each other with a blank face. "We already know that."

Kidomaru approached her in a sly manner and cupped both her cheek. "And you are the perfect asset. _Weak, submissive and scared_." She immediately pulled away, kicking her legs to get farther back. Her hands reached in instinct toward her ninja's pouch, but she was restricted by the tight ropes and her weapons were gone.

"Be a good girl, don't even think about doing anything stupid. We won't hesitate to hurt you."

* * *

She didn't closed her eyes the entire night.

When the sun rose up this morning, the ropes were loosed and all her weapons laid right next to her.

She pretended that she didn't see the smirking shinobi with three pair of arms leaning on a tree as she bolted away.

_Why did he let me escape? Don't think. Run! Just run!_

* * *

"Peekaboo!" She jerked up her head at the excited shout. She scrambled to her feet out of the hole, hiding by the tree's roots, as fast as she could. _Where is he?_

"Here," someone breathed into her ear. She twisted and pulled out a kunai, her eyes narrowed.

She took in a deep breath. Kidomaru was the most intelligent member of the Sound Four with exceptional strategies and perception. He liked to toy with his opponent before he killed them, but he had no intention to take her life.

"Where is the rest?" She asked.

"Do you really want everyone to be here?" He chuckled. "Don't you? It will be too easy. After all, I am too much for you to take." He showed his three pair of arms.

She launched a couple of kunai to where he stood and he avoided them at the last second, showing her that she was not a threat. "It's not fun if you stay still, do something. Okay?" He shot a sticky substance that looked like spider's webs from his mouth.

She invaded them by running and jumping on the trees. From the anime, she remembered that his tread was stronger because it was intensely permeated with chakra. So when a web was too close, she infused a kunai with her chakra and slayed it. _He is not even trying!_

"Incredible! Nobody has figured it out so quickly! But you cut my thread in your first try!" Kidōmaru playfully approved "But it's not good enough."

He shot a bigger web. It caught her hands and legs in a tight hold on a tree's trunk. "For a tiny little shrimp, you are not bad!"

He slowly strode with a satisfying smirk. "Your hands and feet are the only place where you can channel your chakra. Without them, you can't destroy my thread!" But his face felt and he moped in disappointment. "Is that all? I was hoping for something more exciting…"

When he was in her range, shurikens flew toward him and he was fast enough to get out of the way.

"What?" He said surprised and laughed when he figured out how she got out. "You wrapped yourself with wires and infused them with chakra in your hands! This game has a higher difficulty level than I thought!"

"_SHUT UP!"_ She hissed which betrayed her agitation. "Nobody need you to explain _shits_!"

She put her hands in a seal.

Explosive tags went wild.

* * *

Right now, it was Tayuya's turn to take over Kidomaru's shift.

However, he was nowhere to be found and the little brat was also missing.

"Kidōmaru! _He did it again_!" Tayuya leered, snarling in irritation. Her loud rant woke up the entire squad. Kidōmaru often released their captives and hunted them down, just for fun, especially when he knew that they were too weak to fight back. Tayuya was irritated not because of that, the spoiled brat would eventually be brought back, it was more because he never informed them of his little playtime.

Somebody jumped down, shamelessly cutting in the middle of her outburst. Here was her idiot wasteful partner!

"_Where is the little trash_?!" she screamed.

Kidomaru grasped his arm. "That's the first thing you say to me when you can clearly see that _I AM HURT!"_

"You don't mean that…" Jirōbō trailed. "That the girl was the one who-"

"Absolutely not." Kidomaru contested. "Tch. She can't put a single finger on me. It was her annoying old man. They met. We just battled in the west Coast."

"It complicates everything!" Sakon said. "Why do you have to toy with her?"

Kidomaru put his hands up. "Hey! I am not the only one who like to play a little _bit._"

"Let go check it out." Jirobo suggested.

"No fatso, the bastard is waiting for us to come get him."

"Tayuya, a girl shouldn't talk that way."

"Too bad, we are living in a cruel world." She said as she flipped her hands in mockery.

Sakon ignored their little quibble, urging them to do something more urgent. "We don't have all day for this. Guys, we have to ambush them."

They moved effortlessly through the forest as they followed the lead of Kidomaru. He indicated that the two Uchiha were resting in a dark cave. The Sound four carefully entered, checking for any trap, before they ambushed their targets. However, the cave crumbled, injuring three of them.

"I knew it! Like I told you guys, they were waiting for us! But they have to think again if they want to trap us in this place!" Tayuya huffed. "Now we have to search for them _again _because of a certain _moron_. At least the brat will be easy to capture"

"That's actually unwise," Kidomaru responded in a deep and velvet voice. "She may be weaker than you are but in a battle of wits, the last one standing might be the weakest."

Tayuya's muscled tensed up as she eyed Kidomaru in confusion. He was calm, _too calm_.

He chuckled calmly. The rogue ninjas stepped back. "What's with you?"

Then his face cracked and a layer of skin peeled off. They witnessed a mass forming on Kidomaru's forehead and it became a dark mask that later shattered on the ground.

The rogue ninjas stepped back. "_You_" Tayuya exclaimed, clear disdain on her face. "You are the _Chameleon!_"

"So you finally recognize me."

"I have heard a lot about you," Sakon added, terribly agitated "The Chameleon is known to impersonate anyone to perfection. He is infamous during the third Shinobi Wold War…for shedding blood with the faces of someone you are close to_._"

The three shinobis released their final stage of curse seal.

Anzen's eyes snapped open with the unmistakable crimson pair of sharingan, spinning murderously like a vortex. "However, you are not deemed worthy to die by the hands of your love one. For there is no one who cherish you back."

.

.

* * *

Meanwhile, somewhere else, the real member of the Sound Four was getting more annoyed by the second, while the young girl was desperate to keep up.

"I change my mind." Kidomaru seriously said. "Sure we don't need you! We can found someone else!"

From his mouth, a strange yellow fiber went out. "Sticky Gold" That was the only warning she had before he shot it toward her. She barely invade it by deviating its trajectory with the wires. He shot more. She moved in reflex and hid herself among the trees.

He then summoned a huge spider that ordered a pack of smaller ones.

"Great Fireball jutsu," she whispered as she expelled an enormous orb of roaring flame, consuming everything in its way to eradicate her foes.

"You won't have any chakra left, huh." He teasingly barked. "The weakest one in the game always goes down first!"

He activated his curse seal's second stage. Horns grew on his forehead, his skin became dark red and white hair appeared on his shoulder and elbows. He then created a bow and arrow. "Guess it was more fun this way… but now game over!" He fired at her.

The arrow was following her movement, attached to a thread for him to control.

She ran, _ran and ran. _Her erratic heartbeat was going faster and faster. Then she saw the arrow coming next to her, teasingly provoking.

Her whole body halted, her mind became blank. There was nothing more she could do to invade his arrow.

It make one hundred and eighty degree turn and it was swiftly flying thought the air, making a maddening buzzing sound in the back of her ear, similar to an angry bee. She closed her frightened eyes and her heartbeat stopped suddenly like a bird dropped from the sky. _NO NO no no no no no_

As if to escape her hopelessness, she concentrated. The earthy smell, the humidity, the droplets of water dripping from the leaves, the cries of the cicadas, the darkness. Then…

.

_The world froze_ as furious blood-red eyes reopened to a new reality.

.

The arrow grazed her shoulder. She stepped aside, snarling viciously. The arrow turned and went directly toward her. This time, she jumped and let it hit her in mid-air. Holding the shaft in a vice grip, she was blown up in the sky, blinding pain coursed thought her body. She vaguely heard her enemy clapping in enjoyment.

"What happen when you light the fume of an extinguished candle?" She screamed eying the smoke coming out of the burning spiders.

She took a deep breath and breathed _fire_. It travelled the path of the thin thread to the black smoke slowly fading. "_Yes, yes_! That's it!" She watched in satisfaction as the confused, the surprise and then the panic look appeared on her opponent face. "It burn once _again!_"

As soon the flame reached the dead insects' carcass, the ground trembled and all her hidden explosive tags exploded at the same time. _It start burning like hell._

The wind blew her hair back and her face forcefully stretched following the opposite direction of gravity. She felt like a comet crashing down on earth and exploded at any moment. How to get down safely before she fractured all her bones? She didn't think that far.

* * *

.

She stirred. "God damn it."

She only remembered crashing down on top of a…tree. She glanced at herself, her feet were awkwardly twisted, and her stomach was resting on a big branch, painfully stinging. She decided to move her fingers. One by one, it shook painfully and slowly formed a fist. _Okay, okay, good._

She exhaled slowly. _Move. Come on move._

She didn't even budge. She could, but she rather waited and rested a little bit. She winced, thin trickles of blood drop down on her chest. Yeah, it would be a bad idea. If she stayed like this any longer, she would eventually lose too much blood and everything would have been for nothing.

After pushing herself off, she clumsily climbed down. When her feet touched the ground, there was an intense pain rushing through her body forcing her to crouch down and roll on her back, breathing hard. Things didn't get any better from there. With all her will power, she struggled to stand on her two feet and hands, then slowly pulled her torso up, her arms spread to maintain balance.

With every step she took forward, Neru seemed to have move nowhere. It was clear that she was lost in the thick mist created by the combustion mixture with water. For at least an hour-_her mind wouldn't register time anymore_\- she would always return to what seemed to be _nowhere _again.

Tired and sore, the sharp pains stabbing her upper chest and shoulder were damn inconveniences. She had tried to remove the head of the arrow stuck in the flesh of her shoulder. But the pain was unbearable, so she let it be, she could resisted it, didn't have another choice, anyways.

Once she stepped into a clearing, she saw what seemed to be a body bleeding on the grass, creating a small lake of blood. It was disgusting, repulsive. She looked at her hands. She felt _dirty, so disgustingly dirty_.

What was left of her sane mind shouted at her that her enemy deserved everything. She had no choice. It was to kill or to be killed, thought she couldn't help feeling terribly corrupted.

She didn't know how long she stood at the same spot. It could be for a few minutes or maybe hours.

As she shifted closer to the stony figure laying on the ground, her legs gave up, she kneed. Her hands trembled as they loomed over the familiar face. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mist apart and shattered everything she believed.

Black iris connected with _red pinwheels._

She had wondered many times why Anzen didn't insisted or questioned her for the letter issues. He could have got an answer. But now she knew why.

As he took a step closer to the body, finally something snapped. It made a rough sound in her chest, a painful itching like a wound that didn't healed. Neru swung her feet to stand up but her knees failed her.

Her body then crawled on its own toward safety, to **_her_.** She tried to scream at him to get away, every words tripping with malice and a promise of _blood_. However, only a croaked shriek was harshly heard. She repeated and repeated. She spat and forced the tremor out of her voice.

When she was safe, under **_her_** arms, she stared straight at **_her_** dilated pupils and **_her_** parted lips, desperately searching for **_her endearing smile_**. Her breath hitched and she tightened her grip on **_her_**, bringing **_her _**closer.

Neru could feel tears falling silently down her cheeks. _Her mother, her best friend, her everything was long since gone._

_._

Anzen took a step forward with _the Mangekyō Sharingan, _she snuggled further in the cold embrace. "Are you afraid of me, Neru?"

.

-0-

* * *

_"It's she one of your imaginary friend?" Akane pointed at the picture of a young woman with a black ponytail in the middle of people who was hugging her. Neru followed her hand with her eyes._

_"No she is not an imaginary friend."_

* * *

_"You got me there!" She was tacked and tickled on the floor. "No stop! Stop! I was-noAhh jok-" Neru brought her arms in front and tried weakly to stop her mother. Her cheek was red as she lacked some air to breath._

_"Ah my sweet little pumpkin!" Akane ruffled her hair._

_"I AM NOT A PUMPKIN!" The child screamed, her cheek gone redder. Akane muffled down a chuckle and said: "You are right, you are so much cuter."_

* * *

_"Another nightmare?" Akane tenderly asked. Neru tensed up. Suddenly she felt really cold. She nuzzled further into the warmth._

_"No." She quietly uttered as she closed her eyes, listening to the steady heartbeat of her mother like a lullaby making her somewhat drowsy._

* * *

_"Can-Can I sleep with you tonight?"_

_She saw her mother gestured to come closer. As she climbed the bed into the woman arms, she melted into relief, a nearly alarming sense of safety as her worries were driven away, for now._

_The woman gently stroke her hair. She wanted to stay all day in bed, safe and comforted by the duvet. She knew she shouldn't. She should instead find a way to survive, a way to live. Anything would do._

_"Sometimes sweet dreams are as terrifying as nightmares"_

* * *

**_"_**_Hush…you …are go..ing to…. __be …alright…."_

* * *

She passed out.

.

.

.

_Ba-dump… __Ba-dump…Ba-dump_

_._

_._

* * *

**LuckyBlackCat777-**(▰˘◡˘▰)

**Edited 26/06/2015**

-**This is pretty confusing…a lot of stuff will be explained in the future chapters :)**

**Next chapter: The massacre**


	8. VII: Uchiha Downfall

.

.

_When we hate a person, with an intimate, imaginative, human hatred, we enter into his mind, or sympathize-any strong interest will arouse the imagination and create some sort of sympathy. _

**_-Charles Horton Cooley_**

* * *

**VII**

.

.

_Bam dump bad dump..._

When she put her head on the afflicted body's stomach, she swore she felt faint but vibrant_ heartbeats_, pounding evenly in her broiling ears before she succumbed to darkness. Hope maybe was playing trick on her. Or raw sadness and undescribed fear were doubtlessly the very source of her frantic delusion.

But there was something she was sure it was real. Anzen had killed the only one who was always by her side to hold her close, to worry about her well-being, to tell her _it was going to be alright. _And suddenly, she became acutely aware of how alone she was and blamed the bastard to have fallen so low, in the same practical foolish trap as so many of his ancestors had being: Power hunger.

After awaking the Mangekyō sharingan, how far would he go next?

She woke up, lying in bed,_ breathing_ and _seeing_. Her eyes were still in their respectable place which was startling, as well as unsurprising for the very fact that they had not fully matured to be considered as strong and suitable to be taken out.

She stared around the room, _her room_ in fact at the temple like she had never stepped outside. It felt so unreal in a way it'd never happened.

But she realized that someone was sitting in front of her bed, silently studying her.

"Why did you kill **_her_**?"

Nonetheless she still wanted to hear it from his own mouth.

They were nothing like father and daughter, but she held some respect for him as her sensei… well actually not anymore.

The man remained unfazed. "What makes you think so?"

"You-" She hissed. "Don't dare act as if you are not the murderer!"

"Many other people could be the culprit. The shinobis could have killed her for various reasons such as being a nuisance in their plan to kidnap you or just by being there, in the wrong place at the wrong time. But somehow, you seem to insist that I am the one responsible…"

"Well you're a sad pathetic little bastard, pretending to act so _innocent_ and _victimized_. I know you did it. Don't deny it!" She breathed, realizing that she was screaming out loud.

While she'd concentrated on getting her breath back, kaleidoscope crimson pinwheels, dazzling with intensity, showed itself in the dark.

"I have no intention to hurt my wife. She die because of you."

Neru lifted her head up, looking straight at a furious wretch, the most expressive face she'd seen on this man in a split second.

"When you went missing, she blindly went everywhere. She couldn't stop searching for you until you were safe. I…"

His eyes hardened.

"I fail to protect her in her times of need. I couldn't save her until it was too late."

Neru gulped, on edge. Her throat was dry, but managed to choke out. "Liar-then how can you explain those... those eyes? You have to kill your closest friend, your sibling, or your lover to obtain the Mangekyō sharingan! _YOU MURDER HER_!"

"I am guilty..." He admitted.

_Fucking motherfucker._

"However she couldn't be saved. The wound afflicted on her was too deep. I couldn't let her bleed to death. I end her suffering."

"I don't believe you!_!_!" She screamed, breaking the deafening silence as she stared at a cold man who told the death of his wife without any emotion.

Her mind accepted her mother's death, but her heart was not willing to believe.

Such inconsistency.

This couldn't be _real, she felt.  
_

Akane was alive a moment ago. She could still feel her.

"You are the most foolish presumptuous fraud I had ever encounter. Obtaining the Mangekyō sharingan is a secret within the clan only kept by certain individual member of the household. But humor me, how a nine year old child can acquire that sort of information?" He marched toward her, making her tensed up."May I state- pretending to act so _innocent_ and _victimized." _

He lifted her chin up. "Might be just you, _Logan_."

Her chest felt heavy.

"Y-you-Ho-w?"

In a manner of seconds, she stood, frozen, confused and shocked out of her mind, in her house, in her living room_, in __**her home**__. _"_Meow_"

At the sound of the cat, _her cat_, she whipped her head to her old annoyance and lifted it up in her arms. It began hissing, totally pissing off like its usual self. Her hand immediately began to rub behind its head, knowing very well its sensitive spot before it let out a low pitch purr.

And without wasting another minute, she ran out thought the door. Overwhelmed with nostalgia, she ran at full speed while her stomach ached and her heart pounded hard in her ear.

"Get the _fuck _out of the way! Dammit! Watch where you are going, will ya?!"

She halted and stared with nervousness at the angry driver, shouting out of his window. She heard horns blaring everywhere she turned as she stood in the middle of the road. Even though the angry shout were still current, damp with sweat, she stood there, temporarily forgetting where she was. The cars then decided to get around her.

The man knew everything; her biggest lie, her kept _name_, her real identity.

"Kai." She activated her sharingan, two tomoes appeared on each side of her eyes. "KAI!" she shouted louder, creating a chakra surge to break thought the genjutsu.

It didn't work.

Suddenly, she was somewhere else.

She didn't know why, but her feet moved itself toward _this_ cave, where she could already smell a scent of blood from far away. When she entered, a battle between Anzen and the Sound Four was bestowed upon her.

"Oh no…"

Her head turned slowly toward the source of the voice.

She gulped.

The dark-skinned woman came closer to the clash, toward a wounded shinobi crawling to the opening of the cave with a kunai she'd taken and asked him. "Tell me, where's my daughter?!"

Neru could already feel the tears prick in the corner of eyes.

"And what? What will you do," Sakon mocked. "Kill me?"

"I-I Wh-where my dau-ghter?" Akane screamed with shaking hands.

With his last breath, Sakon attacked.

Akane was left, bleeding on the grass, but still _alive_.

Neru closed her eyes and squeezed her aching chest, knowing very well where it was heading. She heard Akane's plead to take care of her children and then a shrill as the final scrape of air as it caught in her mother's throat.

…

Then she was standing outside the cave once more.

The death of her mother was not a sight to behold.

"I GET IT! I GET IT! ENOUGH! I DON'T WANT TO SEE IT AGAIN! P-PLEASE, PLEASE STOP! I GET IT!"

It was over. _Over. _

She was materialized before a tall glassy building.

"I did not kill my wife to have the Mangekyō sharingan. I end her suffering. " His voice echoed all over the city.

Neru didn't see him break down but she felt it, the raw grief and the crushing pain.

She nodded, head down.

"Now Logan, let's make a deal…"

She paused.

"When I obtain this power, I have completely lost control over it. I saw this world, crowded by so many human beings, huddled with so many technologies and wonders. But then I catch a glimpse of the end of my clan…"

"What I want is your utmost loyalty."

…

"I am tired of always running away." Neru spoke. She didn't know whether his version was true or not, but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

He wanted her loyalty, really? Then it was what he was going to get, only an exclusive part of it. "This is my mind, right?"

Dozen screens appeared from thin air and a remote control twisted itself in the center. She was on the verge of pressing the button "on" when two chairs popped in. "Take a sit wherever you are."

And one by one, the screen brightened up and flashed the supposed future which was the anime in her world. When the Uchiha downfall arc finished to play out, she felt the presence of another being, sitting by the side.

"Our entire existence might be a fragment of one man's wild sophisticated imagination." Neru mused.

"Let just hope this author is a very optimistic person. Even though we do not know the ending and a very important part of the future, we are never too old, never too late to start from scratch once again."

**"**We are going to stop the massacre and all… But umm…Anzen, we can't do this alone."

"Itachi and Shisui are not the only shinobi who is more devoted to the well-being of the village. There are so many more who are behind closed doors against the coup d'état."

.

* * *

"Shisui had been report missing by our headquarters. No body found, except a note of suicide…Exactly like what you'd show."

They were back to Konoha for a few days already. At their return, the atmosphere was tenser than before and the clansmen were more distressful. She had heard that Itachi was beginning to change, becoming insolently more hostile toward the Uchiha as he put himself in a position disliked by others. It was no wonder that he was suspected for Shisui's death.

"We didn't even do Akane's funeral."

"I already did it when you were knock out."

"What? That's very insensitive of you!" She exclaimed, looking stunned at Anzen. "What else did I miss?!"

"Very much. A lot of things." He said, crossing his arm in thought.

She frowned with annoyance. "Shoot."

"It's not the right time. We have more urgent matter to attend."

"Right." She pushed open the door that used to be completely sealed and locked with multiple locks. She smirked in satisfaction at the young man with short black hair facing them quite indignantly.

"Who are you?!" He hissed, clenching his bandage over his empty eyes.

"We are your ally." Anzen said in a calm voice.

.

"In the matter of fact, we need your cooperation, Shisui of the Body Flicker."

.

* * *

She was not aware of the exact time that the downfall would take place but she was sure that it would be during a full moon, just after Shisui's disappearance, and the next full moon was very near.

Anzen planned to gather three figures who strongly opposed the coup d'état and with them, he would prove the opponent's desire to annihilate the clan with the testimony of Shisui. And there, it could go very wrong. Did they really have a greater regard for the village than their clan? She was still doubtful of their intentions and Shisui was also not fully convinced.

Neru took a deep breath as she entered the secret chamber.

His head immediately turned her way in spite of his lack of sight.

"I need to change your bandage" She said.

"You are not supposed to be here! It's dangerous!"

"Thanks for the worries but it's unnecessary."

"How old are you?" he murmured as he reached out with the tip of his fingers and laid them on her hair. "For pity's sake! You're damn small! What is that old man thinking involving you in all this mess?!"

"I am way older than you boy." _Mentally and all. _She struggled off his hand, but he stretched out again to touch her face. "H-hey the hell you are doing?!"

"I want to touch your face to determine what you look like." At his serious voice, she decided that there was no harm indulging him for a little while.

Shisui seemed to be deeply absorbed in thought as distant and baffled as her cat looking out of the window. Her chuckle for that contrast make him pause from his reverie. He then looked-more like faced in her direction-with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing." She said, so he ruffled her hair.

If she had anything to learn aside from Shisui being a prodigy, it was that he was a very touchy person.

"Shisui-san, please consider helping us." She couldn't help but reminding him even though it kind of ruing his joyful mood.

"We need your collaboration which is necessary to prove the Hokage intentions of destroying the clan to our allies." She didn't have a lot of options: one, telling them that she knew the future or two, proving the need to shove their ass and act with a more concrete and tangible proof. Obviously, Shisui was more effective.

_People_, there was no way she was going to be mind-fucked, her mind might explode from foreign psychic invasions.

"The Hokage don't want to destroy the clan! He just want t-Wait how do you know all this?"

"Danzo will take matters into his own hand and will order our downfall this very week." _Maybe. _She ignored his bafflement by her knowing this information. "Let's pretend to be adults here and get on with this. We have to deal it ourselves -."

"And you really think that the Uchiha, the ones who plan to coup d'état will stop? Not sure why you thought that they will assist us, but I'm starting to sense that you're quite the delusional girl." He interrupted.

"Not everyone is with Fugaku, there're others like you and me."

"Neru, right?" Shisui asked and received a confirmation. "I have been thinking for a while now. Why are you in this? Aren't you scared?"

"Yes. I am scared shitless_._ Why am I in this bullshit?" Indeed, good question.

She had been wondering herself too. What was her goal again? To escape, to _run away_ from what? From this nonsense. But shit happened. Currently, she decided to be on the defensive.

"Because you are not the only one involve Shisui. We-_innocent people-_are also involve. One day, we are going to woke up on the wrong side of the bed and have this terrible feeling of something's about to go down. Then at night, we are never going to wake up again!" Neru said, disdain clear in her red revolving eyes.

"But you know what?! What is frustrating is that we never got a choice! You freaking shinobi decide if we live or not and that's definitely not my cherry on top!"

She clenched her fists. "So listen, we need you and you will cooperate with us or else we perish. All of us. Your choice."

He signed.

"I don't really have a choice do I?" He said with a small smile.

She nodded, taking out her precious old map. All her efforts were not waste in some way. "If everyone agree, the plan is simple."

She pointed at the only red circle.

"We will take the most people possible on a ship and get the hell away thought the river flowing through Konoha, unnoticed by all the villagers and especially Danzo."

She was not naïve to think that the three elders or whoever was against could change the Uchiha's yearning to overthrown the Hokage. They had been silence for so long and she was also against stopping the massacre.

A bigger lost would occur if the Uchiha in favor of the rebellion were still running. "We are getting out through the Naka River."

Shisui laughed and laughed so hard he doubled over.

"You know that's where I am supposed to die."

"Perhaps it could be a place where true hope could be formed not your own death."

He sniffed, whipping a fake tear in the corner of his eyes.

He suddenly became serious.

"Ah count me in, I will protect the village and the Uchiha's name."

_Unfortunately, there is always a catch Shisui._

_._

* * *

"Tonight they will strike."

She looked across the distance like today was a normal day. "Who says? It might be the next full moon."

"They will definitely strike tonight." Anzen repeated as he shoved some papers in her hands.

It was not directly written, but it was quite obvious that something was going on. Every mission outside Konoha that had an Uchiha as a teammate was abruptly delayed.

She didn't believe in coincidence.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"Always."

* * *

She hid herself on top of the roof of a nearby building, clocked in black clothes and observed quietly the beginning of the end. The signal had already begun. But…

"There's no fire." She said in her wireless radio.

"As expected." Anzen's voice replied back. "Someone has put a strong Genjutsu over the district in order to intercept other shinobi from aiding…Ten more minutes and it's all we can do. Neru, go back to the ship, _Over._"

"Roger that." Click.

_Here's a theory._ Even if tonight you were not in the Uchiha district and survived that night, you would not be spared.

Why was Sasuke the only survivor? There must be more than one child coming home late from school or going to a sleepover, and maybe drunk adults yet to leave the bar, but somehow one person live on.

It smelled like another conspiracy.

Did Root cleaned up the mess, erasing their existence, but left the little inoffensive dusk, because he was sheltered by a bigger broom? She would never know.

When Neru jumped down the building, she walked pass a child running late from his own training.

She paused and then continued her path. _Oh, screw it!_

"Hey." She said as she gripped his wrist.

"Yes?" He politely replied, confused. "Can I help you?"

"Umm…" She was taken aback by such an ingenuous expression.

"Sorry, but I need to go home." He pouted and struggled off her hand, but she secured more tightly her grip.

"Actually…" She tried to smile to not look too wary. "I got lost."

She scratched her check in embarrassment. "I got lost and I can't tell where to go. It's too dark."

Sasuke inclined his head and frowned regretfully "I can't help you…I don't know the way around the village myself. But…" He sent a beaming smile which made her heart jumped in her throat from guilt.

"Konoha Military Police Force will definitely help you find your way home!" Eyes brighten up, he said proudly and tugged her toward the Uchiha district. "Don't worry _everything is going to be fine_!"

She put her shaking hands over her chest and took a deep breath.

"Are yo-" She heard him saying.

It was perfectly clear that she was not completely healed, in fact she would never be. "_Fine! I am fine…_I-I remember how to get home."

He sent her an unsure look. "Then I will get going?"

She felt that it wouldn't be the last they see of each other.

"If you get lost, be strong. Just remember, you are not alone."

He looked at her weirdly.

She added "It's from experience" with a crooked smile.

.

* * *

"Everyone in position! Prepare to sail!"

Three shinobi sitting crossed leg on the wooden floor activated their sharingan and released a surge of chakra, playing with the light and shadow to create some sort of illusion of invisibility to hide the unconscious bodies and the ship itself.

"Wait!" Shisui said "Where's Sasuke?"

She ducked her head down.

"I won't go without Sasuke!" He exclaimed worriedly. "I need to go get him!"

"It's too late Shisui! The Hokage and Danzo will arrive there soon." Anzen said.

"And Itachi? Why is he not here? You told me that he was going to join us!"

"I told you that I will ask him to join us but time is running out. I didn't have the chance to meet him. Listen Shisui, you can go but if you do, you will drag all of us down."

Actually, they never intended to ask Itachi to join them. It was impossible to take him and his brother.

The plan need someone to distract the attention of the Elders from their escape.

If they acquired the help of Itachi, then there would be another person who would replace him to exterminate the clan and they wouldn't know when and how it would take place. So they couldn't let the opportunity slipped away from their fingers.

As for Sasuke, they agreed that his disappearance would alert the Hokage and Danzo more than anything else. Itachi was the slaughterer after all, he wouldn't kill his brother.

"Shisui, don't let your emotions overtake your rationality!" Inabi drawled, corners of his lips curling up in a sneer.

Neru stared hard at the familiar ninja.

"Get over yourself, Captain Shisui!" Yashiro opened one of his eyelid and reasoned with his clan mate. "Think of this as one of your Anbu's mission, we have countless lives in our hands here!"

Tekka added. "We are all relying on you."

"I understand…" Shisui grunted, crossing his forearms. "I understand." He repeated with a croaked voice.

When the genjutsu became stronger, they disappeared, setting fire to the sky as they were carried by the rising tide.

.

* * *

Their strategy was all about perfect timing.

When Itachi had made his first move, Anzen and his men had taken their people to safety, burned down all the evidence and all the houses littered with fake corpses. However, because of the lack of time they couldn't even take more than the twelfth of the clan, no more than fifty citizens were save.

Fortunately, the fire were seen as a mishap as well as a premise of a fight between life and death, between the victim and the assassin.

Albeit they were caught between two fires; the killers and the Hokage's force, they managed to get away thought the Naka River.

When the Anbu came to the scene, the smell of burning fresh was the first thing that hit them in the nose. The only person they had found alive was a small child, huddling between the bodies of his parents.

As they asked him what he had seen, the survivor whispered back. "Wh-who did th-this? Someone tell me _why_?"

They discovered that the child was fortunate enough to come home late, fleshly arrived when the killer slipped away in the darkness unseen.

But it wasn't a simple fluke.

Their strategy was all about perfect timing.

.

.

.

* * *

SO HELLO! I finish my exams! (Sorry for my lateness)

Okay let's get serious. Here come **some major explanations**:

1\. Itachi wants to punish himself so he decides to force his brother to seek revenge. _But now_, he don't have the luxury to wait for Sasuke to come back home because he knows that the Anbu will come kick his ass a minute longer. Thus Sasuke will be a little different because he's not traumatized like in the anime. If you didn't catch it, Neru delays Sasuke to go home for a personal reason. She didn't want him to see the death of his family like she had.

2\. I thought that hey! Will Itachi and Tobi get suspicious of the fire? I finally came out with something that make sense. A fight with an Uchiha means a lot of fire (Fire ball jutsu and all). So Itachi thought that _Madara_ (there is a time when everyone wonders if Tobi was really Madara…) fought with strong ninjas and burned down the houses, and vice-versa.

3\. Inabi, Tekka and Yashiro aren't OC, they are the officers who came asking Itachi about Shisui's suicide note.

4\. As mentioned earlier, Neru has not finished the entire anime so a lot of facts are not accurate. She assumes that it will happen this or that way, like the fact that the Mangekyō sharingan can only be activated when you kill your best friend and so on. (The reason of trauma was later revealed in the anime.)

**.**

**If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. :) **

**.**

**Thank so much for everyone extreme patience! **

**-lot of love!**

**I hope you like this turn of event.**


	9. VIII:Genesis

.

.

_Begin with loss and see_

_how the world contradicts you,_

_how the horizon implies that beyond it_

_the water is not empty but full of ships_

_all docking at another island._

**_-Lynn Emanuel_**

* * *

**.**

**.**

**VIII**

.

.

Neru sat quietly, her arms wrapped around her knees as she watched an infant attached to his mother's hip, utterly oblivious of his close encounter with death. He'd tried to gain the attention of his parent by pulling her hair and by doing ridiculous faces, but his mother simply responded back by crunching him hard in her embrace.

It was _heartbroken._

She raised her heard up again, staring emptily. Her eyes then landed on Shisui.

Shisui was pretty shaken up by this turn of events ever since he'd learned that his friends and his second family were not on board. He didn't utter a single word to anyone, quietly backed into a corner.

After a moment left alone in her thoughts, a voice rose above the confused and panicked ones. "We have good news and bad news."

Inabi landed on the upper platform looking severely down after he had infiltrated the nearby town.

"Let's start with good news. First, our downfall has already spread all over the elemental nations. It seems that nobody suspects anything about us. Second, Konoha found a survivor…"

At that, everyone tensed up, hoping with all their might that Kami or whoever was up there answered their prayers and that he was someone close to them.

"Uchiha Sasuke, the youngest child of the clan's head." Shisui sat up at the name and an old woman wearing a brown dress and her husband cried in relief and joy. The owners of the Uchiha Senbei shop were kind people. They treated her equally and generously when she went to their shop to do her homework.

"Now, everyone, please prepare for the worse." Inabi drawled, taking out a piece of paper that he'd took and unfolded it. "This is the face of a traitor! Uchiha Itachi murdered our entire clan mates and managed to escape!" Inabi said, his lips curled up in a scorn.

Suddenly, she was startled when the crowd erupted in shouts of outrage. They had been informed of the masterminds behind the massacre when they had woke up. So why were they acting this way? The Hokage. The Elders. Danzo. All of those two-faced. For that, she was surprised by their lack of understanding and sympathy. Still, it was not so difficult to make sense of their resentment. They trusted Itachi. They were told by Anzen that Anbu were destroying their native land. (Lies!) Who had ever thought that there were a mole who was one of their own?

Pushing by those next to her, her legs wobbled. She tried to maintain her ground, not to be crushed by their weight and the pressure in the heat of the moment. The citizens whose worry and frustration which had been build up over time was finally released.

"It was an order!" Shisui snapped furiously. He marched up the stairs to be seen and heard by all, but his foot caught the first step. He stumbled and quickly recovered."Itachi is a pacifist by nature and would never use any violence if it's not for the greater good's! He is nothing but a victim!"

He _was_ one of us.

She saw Anzen appearing behind Shisui. Her eyes locked on him as he squeezed the angry boy's shoulder to calm him down. "Of course, he killed our friends and family…"

"Anz-"Shisui was outraged.

"However if I was in his place, I might-No. I will make the same choice as he did."

That definitely shut everyone's mouth.

"Two options have been bestowed upon this poor child. Kill your clan or watch them perish by their hands. For either options, he would suffer greatly. In as much as I wish that the coup d'état would work in the end…_It was impossible_. We are strong but _we are not invincible_. They outnumber and outwit us by just knowing that we will betray them."

Anzen clasped his hand behind his back. "Itachi has this insight before all of us. We should be ashamed to even put all the responsibilities upon this child."

Shisui grinned. It seemed that he was beginning to warm up to the cold man.

Great. Now the blame was forced upon Konoha. _Really._

That. Was. Bad.

She hoped that nobody would go on a very literal roaring rampage of revenge.

Anzen squeezed Shisui's shoulder to tell him to continue.

He nodded. "Konoha has not chase us out of our homeland! We choose ourselves to get out and re-claim our freedom! Even though we are at the lowest, we will not perish without a fight! Protect those who are powerless and who believe in us and raise a stronger future generation! As long as the will of fire still burn in our heart, we can overcome every obstacle that dare cross our path! We will rise again-"

_"Because we are Uchihas_!"

"We don't have a land. We don't have enough food to last a year. We can't afford clothes and water to survive. What will we do? "Shisui opened his arm wide apart to indicate the extensive open possibilities.

"_We will create ourselves our own nation_!"

Neru was feeling a surge of hope when this brought instantaneous cheering and excited shouts from the crowd. She clapped her hands with glee, inspired and affected by those who surrounded her. If she didn't know better, the main character of the series would be Shisui with his inspiring ambitions and ideas. Her eyes crossed Anzen's and he motioned her to come up. She shook her head in disagreement, a thin brow quirked.

"My daughter" He said. "Devise our escape. If she hadn't, we would have been six feet under."

_Oh... What?!_

Neru grimaced, drifted among the people to hide herself. But Anzen appeared in front of her, gripped her arms and guided her up to the deck of the ship. As more than fifty pair of orbs were fixed upon her person, she swallowed loudly, her throat suddenly dried and she put her hands out of her pockets in a self-conscious manner. It appeared that everyone was waiting for her to say something…

"A-Am I su-sup-posed to say some-thing s-mart?!" She shuttered.

Shisui didn't even bothered to subdue his chuckle. Inabi face-palmed, Yashiro turned his entire body to hide himself from this awkwardness. Tekka refused to look at her. And Anzen struggled back, emotionless but the gleam in his eyes betrayed his amusement. She flushed bright red under their gaze and her ears burned with embarrassment. Without another second to spare and not waiting to stay any longer, she ran and disappeared through the laughing crowd.

Neru tried to relax her tense up muscles far away from everyone and waited for the speech to finish. "What are you up to? That was embarrassing." she grunted irately when Anzen showed up to her left and leaned on the mental fences.

"We will need them to listen to you in the years to come."

"Geez. They don't have to. I just have to act in the shadow or something…"

"That won't do." Anzen clarified calmly.

Neru hold her head in defeat and looked up at the blue cloudless sky. Her goal had been reached. She was _alive_. She had escaped the tragedy and even brought others with her.

But why didn't she feel _free?_

**_Guilty._**

The word kept replaying in her head as it gradually grew louder.

Why was she unable to do anything more to save everyone and her mother…?! Was that really her fault? Could the world be a safer place? _Why couldn't it be like her own world…?_

_What would she do now?_

From this very instant, she would take everything she could and change everything she had her hand on, even if it meant she had to conquer the _whole world_.

A nine years old should be worrying about how to make new friends, not how to _poison, spy, seduce, murder. _She should not be used to walk in the street to see beggars her own age, imploring for food something they had not _for days_.

Everything Neru did was selfish and to ease the pain and the guilt she'd suffered, she would change everything to the better even if she was destined to fail.

.

* * *

**_Four years had passed since then._**

* * *

.

**_._**

"This is too much…" Kokoro grumbled under her breath with a hand over her forehead. "I'm having a headache just watching _them move_!"

"Kokoro-san, they are just kids." The nice secretary said with a slight smile as she gestured at the members of her team, so curious, jumpy and eager to explore the village. "They have a long way to go before they mature."

"Whatever. These bunch of rascals better fail their chunnin exam at the start so I can go faster back home!" The old grandma huffed and left the perplexed secretary to her own business. "Hey Sugar freak! Who says that you can go ahead of me?!"

Still grinning, Shisui jumped and waved cheerfully at his 'sensei' in his young appearance. A thirteen years boy fully coved in a strong henge appeared to stare back quite gleefully with a pair of black sunglasses. But if you looked through his shades, you could see unfocused eyes or _rather empty sockets_.

"Be careful, don't upset her so soon. You don't want to be strangle in your sleep. " Another boy with shoulder length hair joined the lively genin with confident strides. Inabi gripped his katana with one hand, preparing to defend himself if the grumpy old woman decided that he was among the annoying brats.

"That's exactly what I was about to say." The last member of the unit slowly marched up to them. The girl got taller over the years, gained more muscles and more scars. Her short raven hair fluttered in the wind. Neru looked like the perfect soldier clothed in a grey military jacket, fitting pants and a black mask that covered half of her face, allowing her to mask her emotions and her identity. "Except that obassan like better to torture you awake."

All of them shuddered simultaneously as different images flashed through their eyes (or mind-Shisui).

They immediately bowed their head low when Kokoro appeared before them and shouted at the same time. "At your orders, Kokoro-sama!"

"Calling you rascals stupid would be an insult to stupid people." Kokoro deadpanned, but approved their submission with a smug look. "At least, you all know, who is the boss."

They just came out of a meeting with the Hokage which was very diplomatic with superficial smiles and snobbish laughs. As the ambassador of another hidden village, Kokoro easily get along with the Hokage, talking about insolent genins and old days. Acting like old friends, they had spent an hour longer than what was intended. Everything was going smoothly.

Neru looked calm and relaxed on the surface, but it was a whole different story inside. Nervous, wretched, alarmed, disgusted. She could not understand how the Hokage could recover this fast without fallen ill from remorse and guilt. She almost fell under his grandfather sweet talk as he smiled so warmly at _her_ like she was his own child.

By hook or by crook, the alliance was lastly concluded.

"Obassan, I want to look around to village." Neru said.

"I'm going with you." Shisui decided.

Kokoro only moved her hand with a tired sigh.

They nodded and sprinted on the roofs with one single destination in mind.

_The Uchiha district._

Her house was burned down. There was no more anything valuable. Before she went away, she took what was little left of the house as a memento and a reminder of who and what she was fighting for. Her small plastic bag only contained dirt and a small forgotten red button's blouse.

Then Shisui and Neru decided to observe their target, the real objective of this mission. That would explained why they were resting on a tree, absolutely entertained by the show before them.

"Hey bro, who's this girl?!" Konohamaru shouted, pointing at a pink haired genin. "Not bad bro, she's your…" He lifted his picky up. "This" (girlfriend)

Naruto laughed, embarrassed "Wow you brats are very perceptive…" And he tumbled to the ground, hit by the strong hotheaded girl.

"NO!" "Leader, don't die!" "You ugly bitch!"

But it was less funny when the little boy was held by the collar by a sand ninja.

"Hey fat ass! Let go of him!" Naruto yelled, upset and lunged at him. Only a second later, he was threw on the ground.

Shisui hummed and shunshined behind Kankurō, releasing not even the tenth of his killing intent. Kankurō's body paralyzed from fear and released the child who fell in his arms with ease. He grinned cheekily. "Caught ya! You are safe and sound with me."

Konohamaru froze at first, staring fearfully at the stranger coming from nowhere but when his words finally registered in his mind, the corner of his lips curled upward into a beaming smile. "Awesome!"

The girls in the background squealed with heart in their eyes.

To tell you the truth, Neru knew that Shisui could not let this go and acted like nothing was going on. He was _too gallant_. She signed exasperated, she would never be a spectator with him around...

"Here we go." Shisui said as he dropped off Konohamaru with his friends and patted his head with warm. The wind had blown back his straw hat and exposed his handsome face. "Don't cry. You are a very brave kid."

The snot nosed brat nodded with admiration.

It appeared that the sand ninja didn't listen to his survival instinct when he had finally retook control of his body and retorted. "Another guy who pissed me off. I hate show offs like you the most." And he pulled out the hidden puppet covered with bandage behind his back. As soon as he took a step further, a rock flew toward his feet.

Everyone looked toward the branch tree where the rock came from.

"What are you bastard doing in our village?"

"Kyaa so cool! Sasuke-kun! Oh Kami-sama! Two hot guys!" Sakura screamed.

"Another snob won't change anything."

"Hey, you even going to use Karasu?" Temari frowned at her brother.

Kankurō was about to entertain our protagonist with a puppet show if only everyone would stop intervening in the soon-to-be-fight.

"Kankurō, stop it." A dark commanding voice meddled in _once again_, as if the whole world was against it. "You are an embarrassment to our village. Losing control of yourself in a fight, how pathetic" Gaara said, crossing his arm while standing upside down on a branch tree.

"Listen Gaara, they start it…"

"Shut up. I'll kill you…" Chills ran down her spine. She felt it, a dark terrible alarming chakra and she knew that Shisui had also felt the same thing when she saw him changing to a defensive stance.

Neru had to watch out. Gaara, the host of _Ichibi no Shukaku _and even the unexpected pleasant Naruto were dangerous. She paid little attention to the conversation when she noticed sound shinobis not too far from where they were.

"Hey, what's your name?" Sasuke asked.

"Huh?" Temari blushed. "You mean me?"

"No, you with the gourd."

Gaara stared back with interest at his next prey. "Gaara of the desert…I'm also interested in your name?"

"It's Uchiha Sasuke."

While they were challenging each other, they failed to see the proud and wise vibes from the most dangerous person there. Shisui grinned inclining his head to the side in amusement.

"HEY! What about me?! Huh?!" Naruto thought that it was finally his moment to shine, having enough of Sasuke stealing his spot light.

"Not interested…" Gaara wasted no time and Naruto's face fell. The red headed paused to stare murderously at Shisui. "_Who are you_?"

Said person only inclined his head waiting for the supposed person to answer, unaware that he was the one being addressed.

Neru immediately jumped down, revealed herself from her hideout and stood next to her teammate, starling some of the kids. "You sure took your time. It's almost noon Aniki."

"~It's that so. What are we waiting for? let's go I'm so hungry!"

"Wait. Which village do you come from? I have never seen the symbol on your forehead protector." Sasuke exclaimed, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.

"It's forbidden to enter each other's village unidentified." Sakura added.

Neru showed her guest's pass, displaying that it was legal for them to venture unto the village. "Do your homework to figure us out."

She struggled her shoulders at the ugly frown featured on Sasuke.

Gaara was tired of being ignored and repeated "_What is your name_?" She slipped discreetly her hand behind Shisui's back and tapped two times which indicated him that the question was directly at him.

"Oh wouldn't you like to know?" Shisui said as his hat fell down to cover his face, giving a mysterious impression.

Neru took his hand. "Before they came along I was hungry, now I am seriously fed up." She frowned. Staying too much around Kokoro had that kind of negative effect on her.

Shisui chuckled and bowed gracefully at his audience like a magician at the end of the show. Holding the straw hat in one hand, they vanished into nothingness, leaving only small leaves flying wildly around and a bunch of mistrustful and flabbergasted genins.

.

* * *

Meanwhile the Hokage and the jounins were gathered to decide which team would enter this year chunnin selection exam.

With the agreement of Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma, the next generation was accepted to enter the tournament in spite of Iruka's strong protests.

Before everything was settled, the Hokage warned them again of the puzzling hidden village that suddenly showed its existence out of the blue a year ago.

"Everyone keep an eye on those individuals." He pointed at the pictures of three young children and an old lady. "We have an alliance with them. But…"

With his hat shadowing his sharp eyes, Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't help having this nagging feeling that he'd missed something. "One can never be too careful…"

"Paramnesia Village…" He murmured. "What a strange name..."

.

.

* * *

**AN: I replace the title Metronome by Science fiction. ****It's permanent? Mmmm…**

Edited, 13/07/2015


	10. IX: Chunin exam 1

.

.

_Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something._

**_-Henry David Thoreau_**

* * *

.

.

**IX**

.

.

Somewhere in Konoha, in a pretty ruined hotel, between discarded papers laying aimlessly around the small room, our protagonist awoke from her sleep at the same hour every morning, her internal body clock chiming. Lifting her head from the unorganized desk, she yawned loudly and wiped mechanically the small drool rolling down her chin. Her half-lid eyes then searched for a piece of paper she'd spend almost all her time working on underneath all the heavy documents. She grunted a little irritated at the final touch.

Konoha was on the verge of invasion, but this was not the reason for her uncharacteristic behavior, apparently her frustration did not accrue from being smacked on the head by an irrational vicious grandmother.

_No_. She was very irritated from thinking too much of the consequences of their mission. They were royalty going to screw the storyline sideways with a nail gun.

Neru gulped loudly.

Although she rather slept, she sluggishly rose up from her uncomfortable position before entering the bathroom.

The chunnin exam would not wait for anyone.

* * *

When her team entered the building, she caught a glimpse of Lee in the corridor where a lot of genins had gathered around. Neru touched her face to make sure that her mask was still on and pulled up her hood for self-assurance. If he was to recognize her, it would be too much of an hassle to deal with.

"Let's just skip the commotion already." She tss-ed, suggested in a bitter tone. It was less due to the presence of Lee and the other characters and more due to the fact that her patience was running low.

"Someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning. Too excited for the exam? You don't have to worry. We got your back." Shisui said and patted her head.

"You have no idea." She replied sarcastically. "And I don't want to stay here..."

"I agree with Logan. A genin's fight is none of my concern." Inabi fully supported her wishes.

Logan somehow became her codename. So she could easily react to that.

"We are going to miss all the interesting parts! _Oh-_I sense trouble" As it was, when Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura entered the building, it picked up Shisui's interest. However, Inabi and Neru remained stubborn and narrated what was going on with complaints and snarky remarks on the poor blameless genins, making Shisui more amused of their obvious plot to change his idea.

He finally relented to their request by good nature.

The team took the staircase that led them straight to the third floor.

* * *

A yawn escaped her mouth. As her palm rested on the side of her face, Neru observed critically the examiners and the participants in the classroom, a habit of being mindful of the surrounding.

Neru caught Inabi's eyes and she slowly nodded.

No worries. She never doubted her teammate's legerity. A quick glance around the room indicated that not all the contestants had caught on. Naruto was sweating bucket looking at his paper with panic and Sakura was simply scribing intensely.

Neru peeked at Shisui. He seemed to be doing just as fine despite his handicap. His hand was moving in a steady pace. That was good.

She looked back at her paper, questioning herself if she should leave it blank or not. No doubt the writing test was not worth the trouble. The next part would definitively be more of a challenge with the Jormungand lurking in the shadows. Neru'd identified Orochimaru among the participants since she came into the room. He was sure different from his original form, but still some straits clearly only belonged to him. Long black hair, skin as pale as a ghost in some cheap horror movie, reptile tongue and thick purple rope belt.

_His disguise was… horrible. _

Except that…

She could feel the hair standing up on the back of her neck, knowing that he was five sits behind her.

Thirty minutes left. She scanned the questions meant for passing time. Neru snorted at the unforeseen bonus number which made the examiners and Ibiki looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She mirrored back their expression.

_Bonus_

_If an enemy appears at the vicinity of your village, what are the surrounding elements that could be used to repel their attack? Explain the reason for each element. _

It was as plain as the stick in their ass that Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force was trying the get some information out of them. If she wrote water, she had to explain that her village was near an ocean. Or if she chose fire and wrote that a volcano's eruption could be used to fend off the enemies, she would basically reveal clues to Paramnesia location which was unknown to the whole world.

The bonus conventionally placed at the end of the test urged most people to make subconscious decisions. If you lacked time, you would simply answer it without thinking beyond the box. As an easy given point compared to the rest that didn't demand any need to cheat and have any ulterior motive for certain nations, all participants were inclined to complete the empty space.

Nerveless Inabi and Shisui would never get this easily deceived. Her thrust in them was immediately proved when black letters surfaced on her desk making sure that she'd noticed the deception, a trap arranged especially for them.

Before any more team could surrender rather than taking the tenth question, Naruto's speech on bravery and confidence had affected them altogether as he became the cynosure of all eyes. People often tended to go along with the majority, mostly when they were in the presence of a charismatic speaker such as Naruto.

It was a shame they should have caved in before things started to heat up.

* * *

_Day 1: Second stage, t__he Forest of Death_

Sasuke breathed out fire.

The enemy succeeded to escape.

"Sakura, go get Naruto. We need to get this straight."

Sakura nodded determined. "Hai, Sasuke-kun!"

They gathered together, concealing by the enormous trees and decided to use a password to identify among themselves.

"Be careful. If we relax a single second, we are going to get ourselves killed." Sasuke warned.

"Baka! We are always careful, dattebay-" The wind suddenly picked up, scratching slightly Naruto's cheek. "Ouch. What?"

Sasuke shield his face from the dusk and the wind slicing through the air by putting his arms up. When Naruto appeared in the clearing, he immediately knew that the person was fake. _Pfft_. The moron couldn't even spell words right, there was no way he could memorize all the complicated sentences.

The impostor turned out to be a Grass shinobi who was skilled enough to evade his attacks.

"You want my earth scroll, right?" The enemy said. "Since you guys have a heaven scroll."

_Astonishingly._

He swallowed the entire parchment and licked his lips in a disgusting manner. Those wise intense eyes lifted toward Sasuke as he froze in the opposite direction of his eccentric foe. "Now let's begin the battle for each other scroll…_with own lives in the line_."

Sasuke saw death.

* * *

"Did you hear that?"

Neru and Inabi looked at each other questionably than at Shisui. "No"

"Now. You guys definitively hear that, right?"

Neru pursued her lips.

"Just because you are blind doesn't mean that you have better hearing than us." Inabi scolded, not even putting the effort to look at Shisui as he cleaned the tip of his katana.

"_Shhhh_" Shisui incited. "Listen closely."

Flock of flying birds suddenly slashed thought the serene sky.

They were immediately on the move.

* * *

.

.

**Short? New update in 3-4 days **

**\- Jormungand: The World Serpent in Norse mythology. **

**(There is an anime with that name. It is really awesome!)**

**.**

**.**


	11. X:The forest of Death

.

.

_The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear._

**_-Socrates_**

* * *

.

.

**X**

.

.

_Day 1: Second stage, the forest of Death_

When Neru and her teammates arrived at the hazardous site, they were confronted with a red haired boy, his fists clenched open up in the air as he treated murderously two Rain shinobis wrapped tightly in a handful of sand.

She stared in disgust at the blood scattered on the ground.

"Hey!" Inabi shouted irritably. "They already gave up! Just take their scroll and _piss off!"_

"Shut up." Gaara swung around, his pale blue-green eyes flashed blood lust. "I will get rid of you, _you piece of thrash_."

Alright. You had to be nice with emotionally challenged psychopaths, truth be told…She had to warn Inabi next time.

"This can't be good" Kankurō flinched and Neru agreed, shaking her head.

At least, he was not Orochimaru…

She then abruptly yelped in fright when an enormous block of sand appeared an inch away from her face. She jumped down from the tree limb, avoiding being crunched, pulled out a scroll attached to her back and wrapped the roll all around her waist.

She briefly glanced at Inabi whom Gaara was after.

Two kunais were afterward propelled toward Gaara distracting him from his prey. He immediately created a wall to defend himself.

"Don't move." Gaara hissed, turning to glare at her. "There won't be any suffering once you taste the desert graveyard…"

He was damn messed up, she almost scoffed.

Throughout years of intense training, she'd increased her sense of observation and perceptivity and was capable of figuring out her opponent's weak point swiftly and efficiently. The more she observed his body language, the more convinced she became. She already knew his weakness after spending hours researching a way to face him, but using it was really too risky.

At the same time dodging his sand, her hand reached down to her prized weapon.

"_Enough_" Shisui spoke, his voice controlled and commanding from behind them.

Gaara turned slowly toward her partner and saw Temari with Kankurō clenching their heads, kneeling at his feet.

"_You_ again" He hissed at Shisui.

On his left side, Inabi's katana was about to slash through an opening, but Gaara was fast enough to sense danger and instantly sent sand to halt his foe's movement by covering the blade of his sword.

"We have your teammates as hostages. Cease all movement at once _or else_..."

Gaara's face revealed no emotion, no sign of being affected. "They are not my teammates, but my siblings. Do what you deem as necessary. I do not care."

Neru could hear a sharp intake of breath coming from Temari and Kankurō. The nearly nonexistent faith in their little brother must had being crushed by now.

"You should get your priorities check." Shisui seemed to read her mind. "Besides, we have a 'no-kill' policy. So we won't kill your…siblings, but make them unable to continue. If you want to succeed the second stage, you will need them. Only a three-man team could pass. We will release them if you let those Rain shinobis unharmed."

"I couldn't care less." Gaara said like he just wanted to see more blood painted across the sand "_You are annoying_."

"Gaara, let's stop alright? Don't say cold things. Please listen to your sister, ok?" Temari spoke up nervously. When she realized that he would not paid any heed to her, she said something that would back him down. "R-Remember Father's order."

Order? Neru mused. They had to reach the preliminary rounds for the invasion? Or was he afraid of his father? No. Not afraid. Troubled maybe…

Gaara's jaw tightened and his eyes flashed for a fraction of a second, and then all emotion was removed from them. "Fine." His fingers curled up and all his sand retraced itself back to its rightful place, in his gourd.

His siblings' faces expressed pure relief and also exasperation from their stupid luck.

The terrified Rain shinobis yapped as they fell down on their but.

"I will let this go…" Gaara said.

Actually, they were the ones who were nice enough to let his sister and brother go.

"_But_ y_ou pests won't be spare a second time."_

The Sand siblings marched away and disappeared in the forest of Death without the Heaven scroll (from the Rain men) in their possession.

Neru picked it up despite the fact that they already had one.

* * *

Kiba exhaled in agitation at the match he just had witnessed. He patted Akamaru's head as a mean to calm him down.

Geez. That was what Akamaru meant when he barked vigorously earlier, Kiba pondered. The sand kid spelled _trouble_, way too dangerous. A single wrong move could get them all killed.

But, the other team was also something. The kid with the straw hat moved way too fast for his eyes to follow and the one with the katana didn't even flinch when he was _that close_ to the red haired monster.

He wouldn't want to mess with neither of them.

Still curious, he pulled away some branches and leaves from his view and observed their interactions.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" The two Rain shinobis screamed as if they were about to bust in tears. "We really thought that it was over for us!"

"Good." The katana guy said, scorning. "After what we had done…"

"Small nations have to help each other, right?" The girl tapped her forehead protector which symbolized a state he couldn't recognize from his textbook.

Kiba whispered quietly so that his teammates could only hear him. "Do you guys know something about them?"

Shino nodded slowly in affirmation as he pushed back his glasses up the bridge of his nose with one finger. "Paramnesia village. A neutral nation. We don't have much information on them. Why? Because its existence has been revealed only a year ago. It could exist for centuries but we can not be sure of that. That's what my father had informed me."

"Ki-Kiba, Shino…We sh-ould get going…" remarked a soft timid voice, stuttering along the lines. Hinata ducked her head down, twiddling her fingers. "They will no-tice us."

One more minute, he was about to say until those knowing sharp eyes met his. The tanned girl seemed to be studying them intensely under her bangs.

And then his eyes grew large.

"Let's get out of here!" Kiba couldn't agree more.

* * *

Neru'd lost her chance to steal Team 8 scroll.

On the other hand, she was in the middle of something much more productive. She looked back at the Rain shinobis and smirked. They would definitively gossip later.

Besides their neutral status, which added much to the growing reputation of Paramnesia village, they need to be framed as powerful, as well as kind. Their name alone had to be enough to make men weep when provoked and make them cooperate when needed.

Image was always something vital.

* * *

_Day 4_

"Your glasses…" Neru murmured. She crouched down, took the dirty pair of lenses on the ground and wiped the dirt away with her sleeve.

Her squad had decided to separate for thirty minutes to find any team in the area. With their luck, they'd only stole from people with Heaven scrolls.

_No big deal_. At least, they didn't caught any sign of Orochimaru.

Neru couldn't afford to have their identities leaked out to outsiders, especially to someone who had the ambition to obtain the sharingan. Why would she risk her life for Sasuke? Sasuke's well-being was far less significant than her own and those of her village. He could handle himself well enough in the original timeline. (The real reason was that she was terribly afraid.)

If only Anzen was here with them, they could have stood a chance. With the Mangekyō sharingan, he could have mentally messed up Orochimaru and turned him into a good person since he was already at it. _Mmmm_, okay. The latter sounded ridiculous… like learning a crab how to walk straight.

She understood that Anzen was busy being the leader of Paramnesia Village and, had no time to spare for this.

She blinked and her face contorted into a bitter frown. Thinking about her father made her stomach twist unpleasantly. There was something off in their relationship; his dismissal, the tension, and the way he treated her like a stranger. But, it was fine. They were both in this for their own personal benefits…

Neru took a deep breath and balled up her free hand into a first until her nails bit into flesh. Well there was no point of dwelling on that now.

Face hardening with resolve, she turned around to face the girl who was still fixing her intensely with precaution. She lowered her hand to give the glasses back, but the Grass kunoichi remained indifferent. She must be a little in shock. If Neru didn't came to her rescue, she would be bear's food.

Neru faked a smile to reassure her and blinked when she remembered that the girl wouldn't be able to see through her mask.

She flashed an eye smile then.

When the Grass girl didn't make a move, Neru carefully placed the glasses back on the girl's face. "Oh…" The red haired whispered, blushing.

_Oh? Oh Yes, _Neru eyed keenly the Earth scroll on the girl's lap.

"Dear, I'll be taking that."

* * *

Shinobis were trained from infancy to be nothing but killing machines. They had to be flawless in every respect and aspect of war and possessed the willingness and the desire to serve and eventually sacrifice themselves for the good of others.

Shisui did not regret once for his loss of sight.

He was still able to know what was going on around him.

Open his ears wide and listen to the whisper of the wind, the pounding of heart beating in a steady rhythm and the voices of invisible beings in the distance. Once his senses grasped reality in any way, his mindscape was tinted in a mixture of color and one by one, the elements started to intertwine and clarify as the brush left its trace. It looked completely different than just seeing black everywhere he went, similar to the making of a piece of painting. The fresh wind brushed slightly against his skin. He smelled the sweet aroma of the ripening oranges nearby and heard the cries of cicadas underneath, the melodically tangled of leaves and the sound of a breaking twig…

Shisui stood still for a few seconds.

The slim vibrations of clashing metal as if someone was taking his kunai out from his pocket transmitted through the air to his ears.

He fade away from sight without a beat.

His kunai came to rest next to the person neck. The intruder was small, the same height as Neru. His pulse was beating wildly and his breathing hitched. He seemed sick.

"Give me your scroll." The person demanded and replaced himself with a log.

The pieces were now restored all together. The portrait of a young child who glowered and nagged at him for stealing his brother's attention shaped itself in his blank canvass. It was still a blur. What did he look like now? Did he have his mother's gracefulness, his father's charisma or Itachi's aloofness? Or all of them?

Shisui missed the little squirt _a lot._

"If you don't give me what I want, I will get it myself." Sasuke replied and crouched, his legs bent.

"I like to see you try but you won't land a single hit on me." Shisui said, still smiling ear to ear. "Ne, Uchiha-chan…"

How strong did little Sasuke get, he wondered.

"_Hn_" Sasuke scoffed. "_We will see_."

From ten feet away, kunais and shurikens were thrown which was quickly accompanied by a small shrill piecing sound.

Shisui invaded swiftly through any attempt to wound him. He swung his fist forward with a force that knocked Sasuke backward when it connected with his jaw, the gasp of breath and the dull thud confirmed that he had him. He swung another punch, but Sasuke instinctively blocked it with his crossed arms.

Sasuke threw a kick that Shisui ducked and then another that he passed under again. The fist and kick fight continued for about five minutes until his opponent backed away, out of breath.

It was enjoyable. Like a normal sparring between Academy's students all over again. Then a thump was heard…

Did Sasuke collapse?

Shisui paused, unaware of what was taking place before him. Did he go too far? "Sasuke?" He whispered with a sheepish expression on the face. He marched slowly forward as he counted each step.

One-he stepped on small peddles. Two- a slight breeze rustled the leaves making them fall to the solid ground.

Three-Sasuke let out a raw painful scream. "AAAWWWWW!"

Four, Five, Six, seven-Shisui bend down concerned and his hand slowly stretched toward his long absent friend and stopped.

Forget what he'd mentioned earlier. Sometimes, he wished to have his eyes back. He would be able to see why Sasuke was hurting and evaluate the situation without too much effort.

From his experiences and his knowledge's, the injuries he'd inflicted on Sasuke couldn't elicit a raw scream coming from such a prideful individual (he'd came to label from his last encounter). And a wild animal couldn't be blame. Sasuke's taijutsu was honestly not so bad.

"Who did this to you?" He asked.

* * *

Sasuke fell on his knees, a hand over his left neck. The curse seal was taking control of his body once again when he'd activated his sharingan. It was more violent than before. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths_. Urgh_. So using the sharingan would make his neck hurt...

He'd thought that he could easily take the strange guy down when his foe's teammates were away. _Damn it!_ He should never tried to engage into any fight despite how restless he was to complete the second stage. (Team 7 only had about 25-26 hours left before the end of the test.)

"Who did this to you?" He heard the stranger asked.

It was difficult to explain, but he had a gut feeling that something was out of place.

"None of your business." Sasuke hissed through his clenched teeth, his throat sore from the effort of speaking.

The next thing he registered was enough to make him quite speechless.

The straw hat shinobi called one of his friends with the wireless radio clipped on his ear. When the other arrived, they performed a sort of ceremony using a number of characters written in blood. He'd tried to run away but his opponent was strong. _Too strong._

"Listen gaki, this will suppress any marks on a person. But marks of higher power like yours will depend of your _own willpower _to some extent." The straw hat kid said. "Go to sleep little one_._"

Sasuke drifted off, with a voice that sounded not so foreign to his ears.

.

.

.

* * *

**AN: Okay! Let's go outside and enjoy the sun folks! Thanks for the reviews, favs, follows. They makes me happy as usual. :)**

**Fun fact****: Rock, paper, scissor**

**Ask your opponent a question before starting the game. Then play "rock, paper and scissor". He will defensively use scissor. Does it work? ****_I can't tell. When it does, I think it's pretty random._**


	12. XI: Reunion

.

.

_Our first scene is sort of a reunion between the X-Men characters, which establishes everyone's relationship to one another, sort of like a recap for all those who have forgotten since the last movie._

**-Shawn Ashmore**

* * *

.

.

**XI**

.

.

_Day 5: Prelims_

Among 81 participants, 24 had gone through a series of dangerous lengths to be standing in the exact same place as she was on the other side of the line, facing the imposing Hokage and their jounin instructors on the upper platform. When Neru looked into their eyes, it clearly said; proud, excited, bored, unimpressed _and scared_.

There were many reasons as to why those particular individual ended up joining the Chunin exam, might it be due to curiosity, to prove their own strength, to become stronger or to test once and for all their sense of existence. In the end, intentionally or unintentionally, they were fighting with their lives in line for their land prestige, for something political of great magnitude called reputation. Because this was…

"…A replacement for war among the allied countries." The Hokage said solemnly.

The real judges were not the Leaf examiners, but the leaders and the most influential and prestigious individuals in the highest peak of hierarchy because they were the ones who decided if they wanted to receive their service or not. In other words, the strongest countries would receive more clients and the weakest would lose their source of revenue and see their economy drop by twenty percent or more.

However, they were unaware there was an exception among the mix. A small nation lived in autarky depending only on their own food and their own force, and required no support and interaction from the outside world for survival.

"What?!" A stern southern voice drawled behind her, cutting the Hokage monologue. All heads turned to look at the unashamed wrinkly old woman slamming the door and marching up to a team. Her wide eyes roamed over their bodies searching for any injury. "You brats pass?! What happened?"

"The thrust you put in us is endearing." Shisui mumbled.

Kokoro huffed, crossing her arms with a thick angry vein popping out of her forehead. "So my words are only air for you?!"

Neru simply put her two hands up in defense and Shisui shook his head in disagreement. "Ouch _Oi!"_ "Hey! Ouc!" The two unfortunate victims were dragged by their ears by an annoyed mad old woman, much to everyone's surprise.

Inabi pitilessly backed away from the suffering of his two teammates, strategically retreating to a safer place.

"We won't fail the Chunnin exam because you think it's stupid and that you want to go home sooner!" Shisui struggled to maintain his straw hat in place while his right arm flapped wildly up and down.

"Did you even try the most amazing tasty beef in Konoha? I hear that It has been nothing but excellent. It will get you hooked to eat more_-ouchhh don't-_ You don't always get what you want!_"_ Neru whined. "Grow up!"

Forget about being mysterious or cool. She could tell that the contestants were beginning to doubt their abilities as they were tricked by first impression. The members of team 7 were the most hilarious of them all, mouths wide open and dumb faces.

Ibiki sweat dropped, coughing on his fist. "Before the slight interruption, we were_-_"

"My bad," Kokoro snapped, her temper was rising by the second. "I thought that _Sarutobi-sama_ deserves a rest to catch his breath. His speech was getting quite dull." She confessed, keeping her eyes on the smiling Hokage, driving her point across. "Killing people to protect others and _for prestige_, what a joke!"

The older and more experienced shinobis narrowed their eyes while the participants stared at her in bewilderment or interest at her mockery which ridiculed the fundamental custom of the test that was going on for centuries. Some of them were about to say something but the Hokage beat them to it with an understanding smile.

"Kokoro-san, as a priestess, you have perhaps never touch a weapon with the intention of ending one's life. To think that you are teaching three children to become a shinobi with your pacifist thoughts is pleasantly remarkable. I am amazed. They seem to be excellent shinobis."

The smile on the Hokage slowly faded away. "However, if they are not ready to dirty their hands a little bit, then I can't phantom how they survive for this long."

"Pff. First of all, I am not really their sensei, I am their _babysitter_." Kokoro flipped her hand. "Second, it's only a casual remark, to kill someone for protecting someone else defeat the purpose of doing so and for prestige, it stupidly low."

"Third, there is something more frightful than death and those little brats understand that so clearly. How can they survive for this long? I also don't comprehend!" Kokoro continued smoothly with a short bark of laughter.

Neru shared a victorious smirk with her teammates.

The Hokage laughed alongside with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "It's that so, it's nice to know. Well enough chit-chat. Let's start the matches, is it not? Gekkou Hayate, by all means, carry on."

A sick man with horrible black bags under his eyes began to explain some others rules and instructions to respect. "Umm…Those who are not feeling well, those who feel like quitting. Please come forward."

Neru glanced at Sakura telling Sasuke to give up, but he would not yield, only one person would do so.

"I'm going to quit." Kabuto declared, making the rookies looked at him in bewilderment.

Yet, another voice followed. "I surrender as well."

_Cough _"Umm…You are Yakushi Kabuto from the Leaf and…Ayumu from Paramnesia right?" Hayate said as he eyed the papers in his hand. "You may leave now…"

This was not part of the plan.

"What do you think you are doing? Have you forgotten our goal?" She whispered with a raised eyebrow.

"I won't fight against little kids still wet behind the ears."

It made sense. Inabi was not the type of person who liked to stay around children for long, let alone fight with any of them. Shisui and she could take the operation over without any massive loss.

"Yeah. Get lost, _Ayumu-kun!" _Shisui teased.

Inabi's face showed the scorn he felt.

"You seem to be in good shape after going through man-eating beasts and poisonous living stuffs and don't forget those nasty sulking blood worms!" Naruto thoughtfully said, trying to convince the other dropout when he'd unsuccessfully changed Kabuto's mind. "Don't give up easily!Bel-Owwee!"

"Naruto! Why are you trying to convince the enemy? The less people are here, the more chance we have." Sakura hushed, bashing his head.

"Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke remained silent as he observed them carefully. She had realized the numerous glances he'd thrown toward her team since they entered this compartment. But he was not the only one, the sand siblings were also curious about them, with their strange behavior, no wonder others paid this much attention.

"All hat and no cattle, you are scarred of failure..." Gaara taunted. "Such a pity, I was eager to torture you."

Inabi ignored Gaara's provocation and without looking back, walked out of the stadium, Kabuto just behind.

"Good for him. It may be not too late for you too." Kokoro said with satisfaction.

Two names then drew on the big screen.

* * *

_Uchiha Sasuke vs Akado Yoroi_

* * *

As the battle began, they were invited to observe on the upper level. Neru watched the trials played before her half-lidded eyes, an uncomfortable sensation bubbled up in her throat.

"Kick his butt Sasuke! If you want to fight me, you better not lose!" Naruto screamed, jumping up and down.

"Good job! Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cheered.

"How boring…" Kokoro huffed.

Sasuke was handling the fight with ease. Shurikens were thrown and an orb of fire was launched toward Yoroi. His opponent ducked and caught himself in the strings attached to the shurikens that were immediately caught on fire.

To her disbelief, Sasuke's eyes bled red.

It was like he never had the curse seal.

"The winner of the first match, Uchiha Sasuke...has passed the prelims!" The referee announced.

His sensei instantly appeared behind him. However they weren't gone like what they were supposed to do. They walked up the staircase to join Naruto and Sakura. The pink haired girl praised his victory while the boy picked up the tiniest bit of mistake Sasuke'd made.

Kakashi looked lazily toward her team and that single brief stare that lingered a fraction too long was enough to arouse her suspicion.

Her mind was already buzzing with thought as to how things had proceeded to this.

Meanwhile, two names flashed on the screen.

* * *

_Rock Lee vs Logan_

* * *

"Gai-sensei, it's finally my turn. I will prove my youthfulness to the fullest!"

"Lee, I've come upon some great advice that everyone else would missed." Gai said, smiling.

"Yes!" Lee saluted.

"The holster on her right is suspicious."

"I see." He nodded with determination.

"It could only be…" Gai whispered in his ear, a hand over his mouth.

Neru silently observed their antics with a careful emotionless face.

"Alright Lee! Go do it!" Gai shouted in approval as Lee jumped down the metal fence. "YES!"

Kokoro almost wrinkled her nose at those blindingly bright people. At that exact instant, Gai decided to send them a thumb up and a wink all in his nice guy pose.

Neru stifled a curse and scrubbed a hand over her eyes. "He's not challenging us or even close…"

But Kokoro snubbed her statement and gritted her teeth in silent annoyance. "Unacceptable."

"Go kick the mini-mushroom ass!" She instructed.

Shisui patted her head. "Do your best. The council says a female heir cannot hold it. Go prove them wrong, but don't worry if you don't make it, I will take over."

She should feel offended but couldn't muster the emotion to feel like that. "That's the least of my concern."

The Uchiha developed a prevalent fear of losing power and control over their land after everything they'd gone through. Hence, the leader could only be someone with the Uchiha blood in their veins.

Neru knew that Shisui was provoking her to perform well, to show everyone else that she was worthy of the tittle of heir in training, not because she was related to the current ruler, nor because she was a shinobi among the rare that survived, but because _she was Uchiha Neru_, her will was pure steel through and though-

"The hat suits you anyways." She drawled uninterestedly.

"_Cough_ Logan-san…_Cough _please come forward." Hayate interrupted.

"Words of advice, don't you ever use the sharingan." Shisui whispered in her ear, his straw hat shadowing his entire face.

"Seriously, I don't need you to hover over my shoulders anymore."

* * *

"Paramnesia sends a single team that even manages to pass the second stage. That's incredible." Gai said, nodding to himself.

"The three of them must be the strongest and the most versatile genins of their village. Your student will definitely have a hard time." Kakashi stated with a bored expression as he leaned on the solid wall.

"Don't underestimate him, Kakashi. That kid is a splendid ninja who believe in himself to overcome the impossible." Gai gazed down, a pleased smile on his lip.

Kakashi only flicked his attention toward the straw hat ninja who seemed to have a mocking grin on the opposite side of the platform.

* * *

"Lee is sooo going to win!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I don't know about that." Sasuke crossed his fingers together in thought. He had a first-hand experience with one of them, he expected much out of the girl.

"Seriously?" Naruto butted into the conversation. "But he totally beat the crap of out you and Bushy Brows is very strong!"

Sasuke's hand unconsciously reached up to his neck, he remembered that the marks were no longer there. When he'd woke up, the two weirdos told him they had put on seal that would reduce his pain in the name of peace and friendship between their villages. He was still skeptic about their motives even though the soreness really vanished.

"_Baka," _Sasuke scoffed. "I was holding myself back against him."

Naruto snorted. "Oh really? Then why did you use your freaky eye thingy? My ass, _Teme!"_

* * *

"This will be altogether a fascinating show." The Hokage said, stroking his goatee.

"Let's see what they are made off." Ibiki murmured.

Anko's face contorted into a grimace as she eyed Gai's replica. "No comment."

* * *

The two contestants stood in the middle of the arena, one unaware that his opponent was once something close to a friend while the other, who hadn't the luxury to even thought of making friends at the Academy, was eager to see the change in her eccentric foe.

Lee adopted a stance and then drew a deep breath. "I am, the beautiful green beast of the hidden leaf, Rock Lee! I won't hold back even though this is the first time meeting you. So prepare for defeat!"

"I am Logan. Just Logan." She closed her eyes, reminiscing their first encounter that started with a similar mandatory fight. "Nice to meet you."

For a moment they simply gazed into each other's eyes.

"Let's the battle begin!" the referee's voice rang in her ears.

They had a lot of catching up to do.

* * *

Neru backed away, forming the tiger seal. "Fire release: fire clone."

One similar copy of herself formed at her side and instantly broke into a run, clashing in the middle of the battlefield, exchanging blow in a rapid motion with its opponent. _Kick. Punch. Undercut. Tumble_. Each time they went in contact, Lee sustained burn injuries, but despite the wounds he wouldn't back down.

The intensity of his training came across clearly. Right now they were at the same speed but each hit were harder than hers. There was only a matter of time before he would overpower her clone with his strength.

Neru grabbed the gun in her holster, her finger lingered on the trigger for the perfect moment to strike.

He was where she wanted him.

And the bullet tumbled through the air at full speed.

* * *

Sasuke gritted his teeth. "_Tch_."

"What?" Naruto asked with a confused look.

"The clone she'd created."

"I can also do the same thing!" Naruto huffed, pumping his fist in the air. "And I can do more than her!"

"There is a difference. Yours are B-rank and hers are A-rank." Sakura helpfully supplied. "But why is Lee only using Taijutsu? He could use some ninjutsu to attack from afar."

"Is not that Lee doesn't use ninjutsu…He can't use them." Gai said, sharply staring at his student trying to avoid the bullets at the same time fighting off the clone.

"Lee take them off!" Gai's voice echoed.

"But Gai's sensei! That's only for a time when I must protect many precious people, isn't it?" Lee assumed as he was on top of the fingertip statue, his eyes opened wide in surprise.

"It's alright. I allow it!"

He grinned and removed the weights on his legs, a loud thump was heard as it hit the ground, creating enormous blow of dust. "This is better! We are just getting started!"

"Lee! Explode!" Gai cheered.

In a spit second, Lee appeared in front of his opponent's face making her eyes narrowed slightly and launched a succession of high kicks and low kicks. "Leaf Hurricane!"

She doubled over and caught herself from failing but he wouldn't allow that and launched another spontaneous kick toward her head which send her flying ten feet away, tumbling to the ground. Her body remained unmoved until it exploded on fire; _a clone_.

"Got you." Lee heard, then the area around him became a blur and his feet slowly sank into the sticky sand and dirt. He slowly raised his head to look straight at the masked girl staring at him with an uninterested look.

"Genjutsu!" He exclaimed, swallowing a thick lump in his throat.

* * *

Lee's ultimate weakness was the inability to mold chakra which was a genetic defect at birth. Thus his obvious flaw was genjutsu, a technique that she did not excel. If only she could use her sharingan, her illusion would be much more intense, but with two Byakugan users among them, she was too afraid to be caught red-handed.

To dispel a genjutsu, his options were very limited. He had to cause himself intense pain or to disrupt the flow of chakra in his brain interfering with his senses. The former was impossible now that his hands and feet were paralyzed as he thought that he was sinking in the floor. For the latter, she assumed that he was still inept at molding his chakra well enough to dispel her illusion.

"Give up." Neru said, the edge in her voice dripping a warning as she cocked her gun over his head.

"NO! I have work so hard to be here!" Lee screamed "I will never give up!"

"Don't you see that I am about to blow your brain? Do you really think that your life is only worth this much?"

"I have something to prove and I am ready to give up my life for it. I want to show I can be a splendid ninja as well even if I don't have ninjutsu or genjutsu! That's my ninja way!" Lee said as his eyes lighted up like fire-flies in the gloom. "I know that you are bluffing. Your village are against killing people here. So shoot me!"

He was braver than she believed, rasher than she thought.

"Foolish." She murmured and fired on his two legs, the intense pain released him from her illusion and made him bit his lips.

"This weapon here..." She showed her pistol. "Is never used by ninjas because it's less potent than a kunai that could slit throats in short range, because ninjas could easily evade those little bullets."

She circled around him, slowly one step at the time. "They do not do justice to its full potential. They all forget how precise it could be. So tell me, can you move your legs?" She eyed-smiled, seeing his surprise face confirming her claim. "You can't move, right? You legs' muscles are teared down and wore out. But if you stay still, your legs will be fine."

"Bushy Brow do something!" Naruto yelled.

"Lee, stand up!" Gai's voice followed.

"He is unable to continue." Neru announced to the referee.

Hayate coughed on his fist waiting a little bit more before taking a decision. Lee's body, afore he could say anything, began to shake and an aggressive scream alerted her of the worst predicament. "AHHHHHHHHHH!" His face turned red and a surge of power enveloped his entire frame. "The third life gate…open!"

Neru instantly hit his chakra points to stop the flow of chakra.

The power boiling in his veins radiated off him like a tropic breeze, the air becoming suffocating and dense. The fourth Harm Gate was then opened. "I'm bursting with power!"

She was almost there, just a little bit more.

Instinctively he blocked a punch toward his head and countered with a head-butt which pushed her yet far away.

Neru hissed one from pain and the other from shock. Shifting one foot to the other, she cocked her pistol and locked her eyes with the target. Every muscle of her face was now quivering with nervous anticipation, her calculating eyes that had not predicted this outcome had dampened with tedium now flashed with brilliant light.

"Just try and come near me."

A bullet travelled through the air caught by the light of the stream of fire and the hanging lamp.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Lee darted forward with his fist clenching hard together.

_Talk about déjà vu._

.

.

.

.

.

.

* * *

**AN: It's kind of surprise me that there are guns in Canon, we could see a firearm in chapter 19 (page 7). So for a person coming from our world, the fittest weapon is naturally a gun, I guess. **

**-I am so glad that you like the OCs (they are not really popular). I have a question for you: D****o you have anyone you want her to go against in the future (in a fight for example)? She is an enemy to the Leaf, Orochimaru and the Akatsuki. (So she could be in a fight against anyone you like. **

**-See you later. :)**


	13. XII: Chunin exam –Geniuses of hard work

**_Warning: Grammar mistakes, unbetead like usual._**

**_._**

* * *

_"__I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times."_

**_-Bruce Lee_**

* * *

**_._**

**XII: Chunin exam –Geniuses of hard work**

_.  
_

_._

Rock Lee was angry. Angry with his physical shortcomings. Angry with his inability to do _anything right, _although he did his best at _everything_. His classmates gave him the nickname "Mr. Spirited loser" because there were no way he would become a ninja. Yet, he never gave up and today, with the leaf protector on his arm, he took great pleasure at seeing others surprised looks on their face at his accomplishment. He had done too much to get this far. Giving up was too _difficult_.

It called self-respect.

It was not easy at first. His fellow comrades may have laughed at his face and mocked his dream at multiple occasions. Not only did he had to learn to be able to overlook their insults, sometimes he had to laugh at himself. Sometimes, he had to pause and _think_ really really hard. He told himself that if they could do it, then he could do it even better! Gai-sensei, whom understood his pain the best, had the humble conviction that he would grow into the greatest taijustu master! Lee had no idea how to express his gratitude and decided to show his devotion by becoming as amazing as his youthful sensei! Before meeting his role model, there was someone else he had become attached to, yet their relationship never really bloomed. She had once laughed at his face. She was mean and impatient, but her intentions were good he liked to think.

"I will prove you wrong!" Lee screamed as his eyes flicked toward Neij's astonished face, his rival, whose talents had earned the admiration of many shinobi and young fans. They were polar opposite. Neji was the best of his generation while he was the worst. Lee wanted him to really _look at him_ and notice that the laughing stock was much stronger than yesterday. Now and then, he possessed the talents to even surpass a prodigy.

Lee grinned broadly and relished in the ecstasy of being able to assert the full potential of power that he had worked so hard to achieve all this time! His bleeding legs trembled when he stood on his two feet. Lee knew that his legs would betray him if he waited any longer. So he let his temper flared and activated the fourth gate. _YOSH! I'll show Neji the power of hard work!_

Bullets grazed his hair, shoving them backward.

.

* * *

.

.

The moment, Lee had launched toward her, Neru knew with certainty that a few hits would be the end of this battle. She clenched her teeth, trying to keep calm. Her nerves were jumping all over the place, but her body was strong and her mind was stable. Her experience at handling the unknown was finally paying off. It would be inappropriate to show her namby-pamby behavior in front of an audience and even if her weak side were exposed, it didn't make her less than a capable shinobi. The old geezers didn't share the same thought though. Because she was a _girl_. The Uchihas had set her on a pedestal ever since the day she had saved them, but they didn't want a female to take over the ′throne′, Neru observed wryly.

_"__A fool never changes for his mind never accepts any words of wisdom." _Shisui had sagely said. "_Don't let them mess with your heard. If you do, you will only give them power over you." _Neru'd taken all to heart. Yet she couldn't help but hope they would change their distorted views since she had been struggling alongside them.

Neru'd seen more than its fair share of up and down. At the age of nine, since the fishes were sometimes not enough to feed everyone on board, she'd learned to live with the minimum of nutrition, which had hindered the development of her body. She'd looked so frail that she could see her bones sticking out though her dry skin. The others children were in better shape. She'd made sure that they had the amount of sustenance for their bodies by giving her foods away. The people who had been rescued were mainly civilians. Their survival instincts were far weaker than of those of trained shinobis. Therefore, the risk of being discover were higher with civvies in plain sight.

Anzen had given an order refraining them from ever leaving the ship.

Consequently, her responsibilities grew as well as the pressure on her little shoulder. Neru became one of the few children (always accompanied by adults) that could get away from the ship and hunt down animals to appease their hunger strike. It meant that people were _depending on her and looking up at her_.

Living on the ship for nearly four months, reliant on each other's, without the notion of personal space, had created deep bonds among themselves. Neru was especially close to Shisui. He acted like an older brother. He'd struggled a lot at first with his lack of sight, but adjusted rather quickly. His progress was phenomenal. Shisui was a crackerjack of all weapon classes and of the art of shinobi, from the ninjutsu to the complicate genjutsu. He'd shown her how to meditate and how to fight, whereas she'd helped him step around things. There was also Inabi. Grumpy, antsy yet supportive. The man had taught her about which plants were edible, which ones could be used as medicine and which ones could be used as poison. Eventually, she knew the woods like the back of her hand.

And then one day, the ship crashed down.

It was pretty funny how things worked out after that.

They'd miraculously landed on a desert island where they'd discovered an immense source of foods, raw materials and clean water. At that point, they'd built up walls, devoted themselves to agriculture and shared their pain and joy.

However, the walls might not protect them from the world.

It was protecting the world from them. _You know_, they were…not exactly the good guys -nor were they particularly bad. Uchihas were possessive and territorial. The recondite concept of avenging their love ones in order for them to rest in peace was not utterly farfetched. She was so sure that some of them were already planning the Four Shinobi World War or something…

Or something.

Uh, very reassuring-

Just like her last bullet passing right through that _stupid green blur._

Sign.

She was going to lose, right?

Neru crossed her arms as a defensive countermove and braced herself with a mix of dread and excitement at the pit of her stomach. Dear Konoha, she may have a mental block against a village that gave her up, but she returned with a purpose that would benefit the two of them. Rest assured that you would receive the best payback other than bloody vengeance…for _now_. She couldn't say the same for the others.

* * *

.

.

"What's wrong with that girl?!" Kokoro screamed. "She's letting herself beat up to death! Move-move-MOVE!"

Shisui raised his hand up to take cover when a gust of wind and dust nearly blew his hat off. He did not discern what was going on, but it seemed that Neru was now losing badly. "The table has turned." He said with certitude, albeit no worries. He knew her better than that.

Then the area became hotter. The density and temperature dropped dramatically down again.

"Wow! Lee!" Sakura said. Naruto opened his eyes wide, speechless. Sasuke clenched the rail with eagerness for the future outcome.

Kakashi had teared partly away his heard protector which hid his widen sharingan eye. _Impressive_, he had to say. The boy was not supposed to be able to move, less standing up with his current condition. He was more impressed with the training that Gai had given him. Nobody had ever willingly accepted Gai's draconian regime and followed through. It was more of a punishment than training, even for a veteran like Kakashi for _a good reason_. "Gai, what are you thinking teaching him such dangerous technique?! The extreme lotus shouldn't be taught!"

"You know nothing about that boy!" Gai shouted harshly. "Absolutely nothing…"

From his stretched hand, he could see that the poor girl had been smashed on the limps until she was propelled up to the ceiling.

"How many gates can he open?"

"Five gates." Gai humbly said.

It was maddening.

If one was able to go beyond his own limits such as mastering the Eight Celestial inner body Gates, then as a martial genius himself, Gai's student might be a different sort of genius in disguise.

"Finally the lotus of the leaf blooms trice!" Gai let out a laugh which sounded very uncharacteristic and demonic to his ear (Maybe it was just _him_). The Paramnesia's kunoichi could have been at the same level as Sasuke. She knew how to exploit her opponent's weakness, but the little carbon copy of Gai was stronger and faster. Her chakra's reserves were smaller than average, he noted. That must be the reason why she used a gun as a support.

Kakashi inwardly winced. The girl had being strike numerous time and she was still conscious.

Her pain tolerance was high.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. "How is she still awake? Is she using some sort of illusion again?"

"No. She is not." Sasuke replied, more frustrated than necessary.

"How would I know? It's easy for you to say-"Naruto began dryly, then paused, "I bet you wouldn't even notice without your sharingan." Naruto pointed and huffed, crossing his arms in annoyance.

Sasuke glared and Naruto glared back.

"In fact," Kakashi interfered before they would further embarrassed themselves with their childishness. "You don't need the sharingan to know that there is no use of genjutsu."

That detail definitely caught their attention.

"You could only cast a genjutsu when you have a certain control on the target's chakra flow within his cerebral nervous system. However, the Eight Gate allows the user to bust his flow of chakra out of control and as a result, rejects any unknown energy. It's impossible, in brief, to cast a genjutsu on a person who opens gates."

"_Oh_." Naruto scratched his cheeks, sheepishly. "It makes a lot of senses." He turned toward Sasuke, grinning. "I bet you didn't know that!"

"With that empty head of yours, I am very glad you are learning something new every day." After saying that, the raven hair boy paid no more attention to his rival and refocused on the fight. An affronted "_hey!" _was then heard from Naruto.

One day, they would try to kill each other and Kakashi would be standing in the middle.

Those two would be the death of him.

He glanced at his third student. Sakura was unusually silent. Normally, she would have stepped in before he would have needed to stop them on his own. A little concerned, he slid next to her, out of earshot of others. "You are quiet, Sakura."

Sakura, startled, slightly jumped and gave a nod.

"Mind sharing what is perhaps… upsetting you?"

"Nothing." She spared a brief glance toward Sasuke before she turned her head to look in front, her expression sour. "Really, Kakashi-sensei."

"It's Sasuke." Kakashi knew for a fact that his team was pretty troubled about what had happened in the forest of Death. When they'd walked through the door with their heads hung down low and an unconscious Uchiha, something had snapped in him. _Bad news_. A near death experience without him. He couldn't do anything. Why was this happening to him, all over _again_?

At least, his team was still in one piece or else…He would like to avoid thinking about that.

"No, it's not about him! Uh, not really." Sakura said as she ran a hand across her face and her short pink hair. She signed and risked a glance. "I'm not strong enough. Naruto and Sasuke-kun are always protecting me." She gritted her teeth. "If I were to go against her, do I have any chance of winning? For a girl, she's…_tough_."

Kakashi inwardly signed. Was this one of those moments where he had to teach something useful?

"There is no such thing-_for a girl_, Sakura. Gender does not matter in our profession. You should have realized that sooner, but it never too late." It was not wise to rub salt into the wound. Sakura didn't have her battle yet. "You are not too bad if I do say so myself. You can throw a good punch." Kakashi said firmly and smiled with his eyes.

Sakura beamed at his praised, oblivious to the fact that he had relatively avoided her query.

Kakashi moved back quickly, slumped with relief and leaned against the cool stone wall. The talk was officially over and done with. He hoped he didn't have to do anything hortatory anytime soon. _Ma_, his hopes were hastily dashed when he thought about what had occurred in the forest of Death.

Kakashi was not prepared to hear the name _Orochimaru. _The answer had left his stomach tied in a knot. The old snake was craftily inveigling the last Uchiha, his adorable little student. To top that, just a while ago, he'd learned that Paramnesia had done something nice-_he almost choked on his saliva_\- to help them out.

Kakashi didn't know if he should be grateful or not…

After given Sasuke the evil sealing, the Paramnesia team (excluded the girl) had left his student with Naruto and Sakura with not much of an explanation. _For friendship and peace?_ He guessed only Naruto would buy that. Saving a leaf shinobi to help strengthen their alliance was truly thoughtful, but an alliance was nothing more than a verbal promise. No wars had been prevented in the past. Thus Kakashi was not easily fooled by their deed.

They were oddities.

Here, they had an unknown three-man squad and an old priestess who had the gall to enter a full armed village. Konoha could effortlessly handle the four shinobis. They were less threatening compared to the numbers of force from Suna and Sound, but they were not categorically harmless anymore. Now, they knew about Sasuke's curse seal.

He would have got rid of them if only the Hokage would permit it. However, gathering Intel to use against them seemed more vital.

Kakashi frowned. Sasuke'd warned him of the straw hat boy over and over again. He surveyed the other side of the rail as he opened his left eye.

"Maa, what do we have here?"

His sharingan spun slowly, the strange pattern of chakra moving around the boy flashed him red flags.

Kakashi may have a plausive answer for his own question.

* * *

.

.

_Surprise! Surprise!_

Neru didn't even lose consciousness after one hit nor after seven hits? She had lost count after two. Her head was spinning too much to focus. She had never felt the urge to thank Anzen for his over-the-top training until now!

Neru was presently in the air. Lee had kicked her up in the celling. Before he could give her more damage, she had created a half-assed fire clone and switched with it (the substitution jutsu). She knew that Lee knew that he was fighting a fake for they had locked eyes when she was one meter way from him in mid-air and when she had purposely waved. Lee had pulled a weird face, but he didn't go immediately after her. _Nop_, it looked like he wanted to batter her clone before coming after her.

With the help of a kunai attached to some strings, Neru landed safely. When the dust flew up in her nostril and her eyes, Neru suppressed the urge to cough. She pressed her lip in a tight line, rushed to the farthest corner and quickly loaded her gun with another round of bullets. A few bullets fell and rolled on the ground once she realized that Lee had almost finished with her disfigured clone.

He twisted in the air and gave one hell of a kick.

"Holy shit...!"

It flew down like a meteorite, busting into flame.

She had used her last reserve of chakra for those techniques and now, she could only rely on her gun. Flinching when she took a step back, Neru tightened her hold, feeling her hands shaking. It would be too difficult for her to shoot a moving target, especially someone running at such speed.

A green blur appeared in her line of vision. Fifteen degree to her right.

One breath. One shot.

Neru closed her eyes and waited. Her hands were no longer shaking. A visible pearl of sweat slid down her forehead to splash on the dirty floor. Neru could hear the voice of Naruto screaming_ "She misses!" _so loudly that it echoed in her mind, _again and again and-_

_Thud. _

It was a pleasant sound, the sound of someone falling on the ground…

"The victory goes to_ cough_ -….!"

.

_Silence._

_._

"…Logan from Paramnesia!"

.

.

* * *

.

.

"What just happened?!" Tenten said with surprise.

.

"It's clear that the heaven has another path for Lee." Neji calmly replied as he deactivated his byakugan.

"Uh," Tenten bit her lips from uttering something she might regrets. She wanted to avoid a long speech about fate and the circle of life. _Okay_, if it came down to that, she wouldn't mind much, because she was downright curious. "So…how come Lee tripped? Nothing was in his way."

"An explosion. A small nonetheless, but it was all it took."

Tenten pressed on with a movement of her hands.

Neji obliged. "The bullet has exploded after it went through the small fire behind him and due to the high temperature, the combustible powder ignited inside the cartridge making small pieces of metal flew out. The impact behind his neck and his popliteal knocked him over. Hence his head smashed on the ground."

"So she was not arming at Lee, but at the fire?! Has she devised the plan from the very beginning?" Tenten gasped. "It could explain why she specifically created a _fire_ clone. She knew that Lee would destroy it and so that small fire would make her bullet exploded in tiny pieces!"

Tenten hoped this match would prove him wrong. Lee was_ really strong _and well, Neji should never underestimate a girl.

"Medics quickly!" At the sound of her worried teacher, Tenten rushed downstairs to join her injured teammate. A few seconds later, a whole team of medics came rushing by. Lee was then moved away as he laid down on a stretcher and frantic conversations were exchanged. In the end, she had nothing to worry. Lee had two broken legs, a few burned skin and a lot of scars. Nothing unusual.

Tenten expressed her relief with a huge smile and Gai-sensei did the same.

It was her cue to go upstairs.

But, she did not.

She was blandly staring at the girl still holding her gun. None of the medics had reached out for her and her teammate had made no move, just like _Neji_. He was just standing there while this girl-_What was her name again? Oh yeah, Logan-_couldn't even stand properly. Plus, her sensei was eerie. She was grinning cruelly and glaring at Gai-sensei.

Tenten would never admit to anyone she had been cheering for Logan and Lee at the same time. Lee would be so disappointed in her, but it was a novelty to meet another kunoichi who took her training seriously. So it was no surprise when Tenten stepped forward. "Need a little help?"

Logan snapped out of her musing and looked at Tenten with drowsy eyes.

"I dunno." Logan said and coughed, putting her hand over her throat.

Her voice sounded squeaky and strange.

Tenten shuddered. There was a newly formed patch of red on her mask.

Logan stood up slowly with shaky legs, almost collapsed on her butt if Tenten didn't took her hand and pulled her up. "I take that as a yes." This was when she realized she had put her arm across the other's shoulder and dragged her to go see a medic-nin. "I leave the rest to you!"

Before she festinated away, she looked over her shoulder and saw the girl, despite being barely awake, watching her with something akin to glee. Logan lifted her hand in valediction, but failed miserably when her arm suddenly went limp, dropping awkwardly at her side.

Tenten giggled.

"What are you doing?" Neji frowned.

"You know the normal stuff; meeting new people, making new friends." _Something you don't do_, Tenten refrained from saying.

"We are in a competition. We are not here to makes friends."

Disapproval was written all over his face.

"_Yeah, yeah_."

.

.

.

* * *

**AN: Thank you so much for reading and waiting!**

**Clarification:**

1) Shisui didn't go see if Neru was fine, because he couldn't risk moving too much in fear that other realized that he was blind.

2) I've chosen Logan to be her previous name, because it's not Japanese and it sounds like Konan, which seems acceptable in the Naruto's world.

3) Kakashi can't see Shisui's true form with his sharingan. He simply knows that the user is using the transformation jutsu. Orochimaru is also in a henge. If only Kakashi had looked the other way…

**Reviews: ****Seriously, thanks everyone for reviewing!**

**Sabie0521** **and Guest-** I will someday rewrite the sound four arc. But for now I can't, because in the future Neru will learn more about what truly happened during Akane's death.

**llat-2**\- Naruto will definitely be one of her opponents. I'll make sure of that. ;)


	14. XIII: Line of fate

_._

_._

_"__Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call destiny."_

**_-John Hobbes_**

* * *

_._

_._

_._

**XIII: Line of fate**

**.**

**.**

Neru had dozed off after the paramedic had done their respectful share of work. When she woke, the sound of breathing and the rustling of sheets made her realize that she was not alone. Her senses finally started to kick in. Her hand shot up to her face and to her relief, her mask was still on. Hazily, she sat slowly upright and found herself on a small single bed among many others.

At close inspection, it appeared that she was in a medical faculty where laid those who were likely injured in the forest of Death or from the preliminaries. She recognized the two Rain shinobis and the red-haired girl that she had protected earlier. Lee was likewise placed nearby, on another bed paralleled to her own. If she extended her arm a little further, she might be able to grasp his hair.

She blinked.

Not that she had any intention to follow through. His lovely braid was completely gone, much to her disappointment. It was her favorite distraction during their practice session, since he was lively more often than not, pulling his braid did make him less annoying at times. She did feel slightly bad hurting his feelings and such, now that he was in a usual display of serenity. On the bright side, her victory brought a sudden boost of ego to her partial damaged self-esteem. Her constant defeat against Anzen had taken its toll on her confidence for a while now and for a change, she was whipping someone's ass.

Just the thought of that made her smile.

She swung her legs on the floor and lunged to her feet. She felt great. Her injuries weren't serious enough to immobilize her on the bed any longer. She was going to go out there and see for herself how everyone was faring. Before she could step outside the room, someone called for her attention. She turned around and gave a quick "yes?"

"Hi…" the red-haired girl said and quickly added. "Congrats, I knew you could do it!"

"Oh," Neru crossed her arms, feeling more satisfied than before. "Thank you."

"I wish I was there to see how it went. I got a little worried when the medics brought you here."

They only met once and the Grass kunoichi was overfamiliar with her, not that she minded to say the least. It was not like they were going met again. Neru pushed open the big wooden door and the girl had took it like an invitation to follow.

The stranger ran after her.

"Where are you heading?" She asked walking by her side, sticking way too close for conform.

"I am going to head back to watch the rest of the preliminaries."

The atmosphere was eldritch. They could hear the echo of their footsteps as they walked through the hallway that was way too empty and dim for a tourist spot. The iron bars hanging on the walls were making it worse, it kind of looked like the inside of a prison in the middle of the night. Then to her delight, she caught sight of a map hanging loosely. Her eyes narrowed to look at the directions due to the light that went on and off.

Konoha sure needed to fix this damn place up.

"I am not allowed to go there with you." The red head said regretfully. "It's only for those who have passed the second round."

"All right…Uh, better luck next time."

"There won't be next time."

Neru was puzzled. "The Chunin exam takes place twice a year. You have plenty of chance to get better."

"No, you don't understand. I don't think I will ever step out of that…of that place."

"Forgive me for asking but what place are you talking about?"

"I can't tell…"

"Sorry," Neru said without really meaning it. She had no idea what the girl was talking about, but it seemed that the subject was a touchy one. If she had to make a guess, she would say that the stranger had some very strict parents.

"No! No!" The girl jumped and waved her hands aimlessly. "There's nothing to apologize!" She laughed a little before she looked back at the map shifting the conversation. "I suggest that you don't take this route." Sliding her glasses up, she pointed at the initial course that Neru was planning to take.

This time Neru was silent for a moment. "But this route is way faster and at shorter distance." She opposed, at last.

"Trust me, there's someone you don't want to come across."

"Who?" Neru said, raising an eyebrow at her and she signed in response. "There is little I can tell. Actually, I am a sensor, so I can easily sense people's chakra signature and that person over there is not a very cheerful one. I don't want you to be mix with him."

Him?

The explanation did not bring enough satisfaction to her taste, but enough to persuade her to not ask for trouble. The girl had voluntary given up an important piece of information about herself.

_You just don't tell anyone about your special skill._

She was giving an expectant look reminiscent of a lost puppy that made Neru signed in resignation. "Fine." The possibility that she was lying did not cross her mind. The girl spoke with probity and when she was less than forward, she would say that she couldn't give her a clear answer.

Neru was about to walk away when she heard the girl screamed. "My name is Karin by the way!" She would remembered that, the name did not ring any bell, but she felt that it should.

"Mine is-"

"I already know, Logan-chan!" Karin grinned broadly. "And remember…You must never let your guard down. There are terrible things in the shadows."

Somehow, her guts told her that she'd just dodged a bullet.

.

* * *

_Uzumaki Naruto vs Inuzuka Kiba_

* * *

_._

The first thing Neru saw when she turned around the corner was an orange flashy figure and white fur. She could hear fierce barking coming at the end of the dark passageway and a loud cheer. She decided to observe the fight by the entrance where she had a clearer view at things.

"You stink of dog!" Naruto spat after he bit Kiba's hand. "Peh peh!"

"So you've gotten a little stronger…But it's over, I'm serious now." Kiba said.

"It's that so? Then me too!" Naruto defied.

Neru looked above. Her eyes swept appreciatively along the railing and stopped at the usual sight. There was what looked like an unconscious blonde girl who she could easily recognize as Ino Yamanaka. Sakura was also tired out by her side.

"This is the 6th match in case you are wondering." Shisui said after she joined them on the upper level.

She was informed of the names of the contestants in order of their times in the qualifying rounds. Nothing was out of the ordinary for the eyeless man, but she was beginning to be more agitated at the odd changes. The computer system was randomly selecting the same contestants to go against each other as the original timeline. The victor remained unchanged. The order however was altered.

If it continued in this direction, then this might mean that Shisui's opponent would be the one who was supposed to go against Lee… She didn't like that line of thought. Unfortunately, Shisui couldn't be more detailed because Kokoro's live coverage was, to put it most respectfully, very unhelpful.

"Puuuu!"

"Who, pray tell, taught him that revolting technique?!" Kokoro grimaced in disgust.

"See," Shisui pointed out. "Not helpful."

Neru shook her head.

Kiba screamed pitifully.

It must be freaking embarrassing to lose to a fart. Even if she knew that Kiba's sense of smell was 100's times stronger than any normal human, she would never have the nerve to actually fart on him and in front of everyone-to say the least. Naruto had no shame. Now that she thought about it, she was not sure what she expected. He always acted retarded or rather mentally challenged. She knew that this was going to happen, but still…

Shisui gripped her shoulders and shook. "Come on, tell me."

"I'm serious. You don't want to know. It's for the best." She said matter-of-factly.

"I am not sure, but I think that if I'm right than…" Shisui frowned. It appeared that he had overheard what the others near them were saying. "Did he just-"

"Please don't even try to imagine!"

Naruto used the shadow clones jutsu and they ran toward Kiba punching and kicking him everywhere. He finished his poor opponent with an upper cut.

The room erupted in cheers again and Naruto grinned brightly. Everyone who knew him were talking about how he had changed from the dead last to a decent shinobi. He obnoxiously screamed that it was an easy win jumping up and down.

"Talk about zero tact," Sasuke smirked.

"That's Naruto to you," Kakashi shook his head rather proudly.

"Logan-san!" Neru turned toward the female voice. Tenten came up to her with a bright smile. At first glance, the catchiest thing about her was the two Chinese-style buns on her head. She had a pretty face and she seemed good-hearted.

"How are you feeling?"

"Peachy," Neru said gravely and inclined her head showing her manners. "I am thankful for your help. As you can see, my voice is now functional and I am completely healed."

"That's great," Tenten scratched her nose uncomfortably. "I am actually hoping to see your gun if you don't mind. I have seen a lots of handguns in my life, but never something like yours."

Her gun was smaller and the bullet traveled faster than ordinary. Neru straitened up and adjusted her holster. "I rather not. It's very precious to me. I don't want anyone else holding it."

Tenten nodded. "It's like handing over your babies."

"True," Neru puffed in amusement.

"Tenten, why don't you listen to any good advice?" The coldness of the new voice cut through them like icy water. Neru shuddered, she didn't like his attitude. Neji was standing in front of them, clad in a khaki shirt, his skin as white and fair as lotus petals, and his glassy eyes strong and unwavering in the surface.

"It's not a good idea to talk to the one who defeated your teammate."

_Rude much?_

"I do whatever I like, 'kay?" Tenten crossed her arms and shot her a look of apology. Neji was frowning heavily, but for Tenten's sake, Neru fought to keep a neutral expression even when he stared at her up and down.

"What?" She finally decided to speak up.

"Are you part of nobility?" He asked. "As with your posture, your clothing speaks volume about you. The armor you are wearing within is utterly handmade and the quality of the material are hard to come by."

Neru glanced at Shisui. His face was still facing the arena, but she could tell that he was listening to their exchange. If they peeked inside her genealogy records, no traces of aristocracy would be found. Her mother was a hard working journalist and Anzen was a ninja. Sure, he was an Uchiha, but just because they had the same family's name didn't necessarily mean that they were all related. Merely those who were connected by blood to the head of the Uchiha's clan were regarded as nobles.

She hoped that Shisui wouldn't think less about her. She wasn't presumptuous.

"Yes," She leveled her chin up. "In fact, I am the daughter of Paramnesia's leader." Inwardly, she cringed in distaste. Outwardly, she feigned an air of arrogance. "What does it matter to you?"

She could already see Izumi with her hands on her hips shaking her head as she gently reprimanded her to play nice. Affronted, Neru waved away the image. _Poof!_

"So it seems that Lee's defeat was unavoidable." Neji nodded.

Her eyes narrowed at his haughty tone. "Are you somehow saying that my heritage determinates the course of our battle? That's preposterous."

"We are judged by what we cannot changed." Neji calmly said. "It was not meant for Lee to become a shinobi. He has no talent whatsoever for ninjutsu and genjutsu, which are essentially basics to become a shinobi. You are quick-witted and maturely confident, such qualities are distinctive of an offspring of the upper class. Suffice to say that it's in his destiny to fail and understand his place."

"Seems to me that you are complimenting yourself," Neru countered without missing a beat. "Hyuga, huh? I have heard of your bloodline limit, the Byakugan. They say that it bestows the user the ability of insight. The Hyuga clan can see through any solid objet and even the chakra circulatory system. Remarkable, just like the rest of Konoha's kekkei genkai."

"The byagugan, the all-seeing eyes is a nonpareil to anything else on earth. It's very foolish to make comparison."

"But it doesn't make you superior to anyone else, nor am I." Neru said. "Your teammate lost fair and square, not because he was weak nor because he couldn't use charka proficiently."

"There are no avoiding what's going to happen no matter what Lee does." Neji calmly stated. "It's useless going against the wind."

Those within hearing distance of them visibly tensed at this. Neru was feeling something bubbling in her stomach, a heat had taken all over her face. She knew that she was red and she was ready to say nasty things out of her mouth. He was insulting Lee and by some means, he was indirectly insulting her. Was he claiming that fate had already established their stories?

Kokoro's prophecy failed miserably. Nonetheless, how could she explain the coincidental variables that repeated itself? She couldn't erase the realm of possibilities that everything may return to its original form. She had noticed how things tended to have the same end.

She heard Kakashi holding Sasuke and Naruto back in the background. Sasuke would want to say something along the line of the supremacy of the Sharingan, Neru thought bitterly. Plus, our dear Naruto, the child of prophecy, would want to defend the unprivileged while he had no idea that he was privileged himself. He was the son of the Fourth Hokage. Jiraiya was to become his personal teacher. Even though he began as a nobody, he was quickly climbing the power's ladders. Right. Maybe that was not the best word to describe him. He did after all have a rough childhood, but she understood very clearly Neji's logic. Those who were born a second earlier, those who had a powerful heritage were unquestionably more blessed than others.

_The truth hurts more than a lie._

"Hold on!" Tenten matched over to Neji. "You can't say that behind Lee's back!"

"I already told him multiples times." Neji tilted slightly his head to the side, giving the impression that he did not discern what he had done wrong.

_A perfect picture of innocence._

"Look, if you mean everything you say, then I, a child of some middle class, wouldn't be able to beat-" Tenten broke off and forced herself to finish her sentence. "Any of the heirs or any kid of the Kazekage."

"Depends, anyone can beat Hinata-sama." That were Neij's last words before he strode calmly away. A second later, Gai started to lecture Neji, judging from the extravagant agitation of his arms while the long haired boy maintained an impassive face.

Tenten's face clouded. "Just you wait!"

"Calm down," Neru said firmly. "Nothing will come out of anger. I will help you. " It may be on a whim or out of compassion, but one thing was for sure, she wanted to know if she could change the result of Tenten's fate. Neru clenched her jaw, she turned toward the tomboy hearing her murmuring "jerk" under her breath. Tenten would lose miserably against Temari if nothing was to change.

"Sure." Tenten nodded. Her irritation suddenly faltered and determination filled her face. "But I don't think you can do anything. We don't know who I am going against. I'll just kick whoever's ass is in the way."

"Wind is our weakness." Seeing Tenten's puzzlement urged her to come out with an explanation. "People with wind affinity often push my bullets wherever and however they want. You are mainly a weapon-user just like me. Your hands are as damaged as mine." Neru showed her calloused hands and pointed at Tenten's scrolls, knowing that her skulduggery had to be supported with concrete evidence. "Let me take a guess, it contain weapons?"

_Hook, line, sinker…_

"Sharp judgement." Tenten frowned and eyed the room. Her stare stopped at the girl with four sandy blonde ponytails. "That Sand kunoichi over there. She has a giant iron fan, probably a wind-user."

"Yes," Neru could see that Tenten was already analysing Temari. Her voice was thoughtful as she turned to ask her about a possible way to use weapons without its being shove out of its trajectory.

Neru gratefully gave a simple answer: Chakra.

_And Tenten takes the bait._

_._

_._

_._

_._

* * *

**AN:Next update will come shortly (in 3-5 days). **

***Uchiha Izumi is not an Oc. She's Itachi's friend. **

**Review: **

**Kejmur and Guest-Thank you so much for reviewing! :) **

**I find out that, during an interview of Masashi Kishimoto at New York Comic-con, he said that guns are not allowed in the Naruto's wold, because it's not something that can be "recreate, or to do, using ninjustu, ninja skills."**

**The source is ****from Anime News Network (2015);interview/2015-10-14/masashi-kishimoto-at-new-york-comic-con/.94186**

**I think that the gun in chapter 19 is a mistake from his part. Water bullet is a jutsu, a technique used by ninjas. So it's allowed, but guns are a different thing. It's related to technology and there's a limit to it. Guns can't be used in the manga according to the source…** **On a brighter note, at least I can use that minor slip to give the main character a unique weapon. :)**

**.**


	15. XIV: Twisted fate

_ ._

_._

* * *

_"__My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world."_

**_-George Bernard Shaw_**

* * *

**_._**

**_._**

**XIV: Twisted fate**

**.**

**.**

Neji was always a step ahead of them.

_A prodigy_, Tenten had heard Gai-sensei say on a warm summer day. She knew that his prowess far surpassed that of his peers even before they were in the same team. Witnessing it herself was quite a blow to her confidence. There was a boundary between them. She was convinced that she couldn't beat someone like him with such a difference in skill.

Tenten was a realist and she knew when she needed to stop. But for her team and for herself, she would prove Neji that he was not always right.

"The 9th match. Tenten vs Temari, please come forward." Hayate said.

Maybe her words would reach him this time.

.

* * *

_Tenten vs Temari_

* * *

_._

"Tenten! Let the power of youth consume you!" Gai-sensei cheered.

Tenten nodded, grinning.

"Wish me luck." She said to Logan.

"Take this," Logan removed something out of her pouch that took her by surprise.

Her grin widened.

"Is this a chakra blade?!" She gushed holding it preciously and flipped it around to look at every angle. "It's made from special metal. So it can be infused with the user's chakra."

"Make good use of it."

"You bet!" She grinned boyishly and jumped down.

.

* * *

.

.

Neru and Neji had been shooting daggers at each other since Tenten had stepped out on the battle field. The staring contest was abruptly interrupted when Shisui clapped on her shoulders not too unkindly.

"You are in pretty high spirit for someone who isn't in her team. The roles are reversed."

"I don't dislike honest people. They are like a breath of fresh air." Neru said pleasantly and looked down at the battle that was just starting. Tenten whirled around in midair and deactivated her scrolls launching different kinds of weapons toward Temari.

All her attempts were unsuccessful.

"Not bad," Tenten said. "I am just warming up."

"It's that so." Temari chuckled. "I thought that you have already shown me every little trick under your sleeve." She revealed a purple circle on her fan. "This is only the first moon. The match would have already end if I used the third moon."

Tenten looked agitated, but quickly regained her composure. She removed another scroll from her pouch. "Raising Twin Dragons!" Tenten shouted. Two enormous smokes in the form of dragons flew up and curved beautifully in a spiral. She jumped, surprisingly high and twisted her body. The motion was mesmerizing like acrobatics motions of a dancer.

Neru frowned with disapproval at the buns-haired girl nugatory decision. It was hopeless, using normal weapons against Temari.

"I'm not finish!" Tenten jumped once more to blast another attack. She was now using strings attached to her weapons to move them at will.

"It's useless!" Temari said confidently. "I can drive them all off like troublesome flies!"

Tenten was blown back, her arms held up blocking the cold and strong wind.

"Looking at another perspective may turn things in your favor!" Neru yelled. In a matter of seconds, something changed, maybe it was a trick of the light or there was really a bold smirk playing on Tenten's lips.

"Moon number three." Temari huffed and disappeared in thin air. "Over here." Temari laid comfortably on her fan that flew around in a slow pace.

Her eyes then widened. "What?! Why am I stuck in place?!"

"Never insult my weapons." Tenten's fingers were filled with chakra's strings. Her hands moved forthwith and Temari's fan crashed down.

"She's using Temari's fan like a puppet!" Kankurō exclaimed and paused, reflecting. "No, the strings are not attached to her fan, but near it." Indeed, some of Tenten's knifes were so sharp that they were stuck in multiples places on the ground and a few were even on the ceiling, and since they came together with strings, they controlled the empty space between the floor and above.

"She has listened to your advice," Shisui said, abruptly. "But how long can she hold on?"

"What?" Neru said, with an unpleasant feeling.

"You'll see."

Tenten's chakra control was not flawless enough and consequently the strings were too thin of chakra. Temari was able to cut them all down with her fan. She finally used a jutsu that enveloped the brunet in a vortex. Before Tenten fell down, something flashed and cut through the whirlwinds.

It gazed Temari's cheek.

Her hand reached up and blood smeared her hands. Temari glanced back.

It was a chakra's blade. Only something infused with a big amount of chakra could go in reverse or through the wind.

"She should have aim for the neck." Neru said, knowing that the buns-haired girl was not one to miss her aim.

"It's too late," Shisui said. "It's over."

"The 9th winner is…Cough…Temari!" The refereed announced.

As soon as the green beast rushed down to take care of Tenten, Neru's eyes were fixed on Neji's body language. He wasn't showing any sigh of satisfaction. His supercilious eyes seemed even darker than his usual glow. She would have thought that he would be at least a little pleased about his accurate prediction...Perhaps he did care about his teammates. Perhaps he wanted to be wrong about this. His notion of fate was certainly sad and unfair.

"Good grief," Kankurō scratched his neck. "It was getting long for nothing. Temari, do you need to get treat? "

"Don't be silly," Temari smirked. "It's just a scratch."

"Yes silly me," Kankurō smiled derisively. "There's no reason to worry about your face. It's already ugly and it can't get uglier."

"Oh," Temari crossed her arms. "Says the guy with makeup. Are you trying to get pretty?"

"Hey," Kankurō's smile dropped completely. "It's not makeup! How many times do I have to-"

"You are hurting my ears with your nonsense!" Gaara clenched his teeth, killing intent flaring out in waves. "It's for your own good to cease wasting my time. It's almost my turn to quench my bloodlust."

Kankurō and Temari looked at each other and stood silent.

Gaara's animosity didn't go unnoticed by our main character, neither did the fact that he had a penchant for wreaking havoc. She quickly advised Shisui to not confront Gaara if they were to go against each other. Telling him that the red head was the jinchūriki of the Sand village was really not the best idea. That piece of information aroused his suspicion, once again. He had asked her on many occasions about her involvement in the massacre.

"Anzen." She lied, like she always did. "He told me…"

Not too far away, a frail looking girl was already very pale.

"He's scary," Hinata squirmed.

"Hinata, when it's your turn, I want you to consider the option of forfeiting," Shino said. "There's only two matches left, which mean that you will be against any of those two shinobis that we better avoid. Gaara of the Desert and that straw hat shinobi… And if you are not enough confident to face Hyuga Neji, do not exhaust yourself."

"I…" Hinata nervously looked down at her sandal.

The screen displayed;

.

* * *

_Hyuga Hinata vs Hyuaga Neji_

* * *

_._

"The main house and the branch house are not compatible." Shisui said slowly.

"Why?" Neru asked although she already knew the answer.

"The main house rules the branch house with an iron fist for hundreds of years." He elaborated. "The branch house are often the first in line to be sacrificed during the era of war."

A dysfunctional clan, just like hers.

Neru didn't remember much about Neji back at the Academy. She did recall the numerous times her classmates looked out of the window and fainted at his mere sight. It was funny, exasperated and worrisome all at the same time. She cast a look down at Hinata. The young heiress had a baby-faced and skin like white porcelain.

She looked like someone who wouldn't hurt a fly.

"Losers are losers. Their personality and strength will not change." Neji said. He then proceeded to explain that personality, looks and intelligence were factors to be judged and discriminated. There was no possible vicissitude, just like the fact that he would always be in the branch house while Hinata would always stay in the main house.

Hinata's face melted into despair and she trembled in fear, like a rabbit caught in headlights. Neji's superiority complex was aggravating. His cruel words would gradually but surely damage her self-esteem. He was upholding his dominance with mockery to conceal his real feelings of inferiority.

Neru didn't like how fast Hinata was submitting.

She wasn't even resisting his verbal abuse!

"His believe in fate is merely an excuse to justify his situation." Shisui mumbled and explained discreetly to her what he knew of the clan. And he knew a lot-as he should, for an ex-Anbu.

The Hyuga Affair was not public knowledge.

During Hinata's third birthday, the head ninja of Kumogakure had attempted to kidnap the heiress to obtain the secret of the Byakugan. He was unsuccessful of course, by the look of it. His death was due to a hit in the chest by Hyuga Hiashi, Hinata's father. Kumogakure later denied their involvement in the kidnapping. Thus, a compensation was demanded as a peace offering between the two villages. The life of Neji's father, brother of Hiashi, was the price.

"Hinata! You can do it!" Naruto screamed. "Stand up for yourself!"

Even with a new found sense of determination, Hinata was no match for Neji. But at least, she was finally doing something she could be proud of.

"The person lost… and suffering from within the destiny of the main and branch houses is you…" Hinata suddenly said.

_Ouch_. She hit the mark.

Then a boundless anger flashed in Neji's eyes. The jōnins had to rush down and restrain him from any further violence. He wanted to kill her, which was an understatement. Neru grimaced. The interference was an act of discrimination. _Special treatment for the main family_, Neji specified.

_True. _

Neru found herself agreeing with him. According to the Chunin rules, the fight continued until one of them died, forfeited or knocked out the other. None of it applied in this situation and of course, the referee could intervene, but he hadn't done so with her fight. Clearly, she could have put a hole in Lee's head, but Hayate was even taking his sweet time to think about declaring the winner.

_So unfair._

Once things calmed down, Neji was at it again, taunting Naruto this time.

"If you are a shinobi, then cease the pathetic cheering. Remember, a loser is a loser. They cannot change." Neji said.

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "'y know, you don't want to test me."

"Heh," Neji smirked boldly, pissing off Naruto.

"Why you?! I oughta-"The blond lurched heavily to his feet and ran toward the pale boy. It was tense and very personal. Soon enough, Sasuke jumped down and intercepted him by holding his arm.

"What?!" Naruto cried. "Don't get between us, Sasuke!"

"I really don't care if you punch him or not, but I rather not see you play his game." Sasuke calmly stated. "He was about to use you to let off some steam." He eyed arrogantly the Hyuga. "You are full of yourself."

"Uchiha, you better watch your tongue." A dark ridge formed between Neji's eyebrows.

"Or else?"

"You don't want to know." Neji advanced.

"Oi," Sasuke clicked his tongue. "How about we see which one of us has the strongest kekkei genkai once and for all?"

"What are you doing stealing my prey?!" Naruto shouted back.

"What got their panties in a twist all of the sudden?" Shisui cocked his head.

_You slyboots. _

"Pff." Neru bit her lower lip and Kokoro let out a bark of laughter.

"_You_." Neji said as he stared at her dead in the face. "What's so funny?"

Naruto and Sasuke stopped and looked between them.

_Why me?_ Neru though. Kokoro had been laughing way louder than her!

Being in the limelight never pleased her. She had butterflies in her stomach and her hands were sweating. But this time, contrary to the time on the ship, she was in control of her nervousness because she knew those people. She felt no remorse, no guilt facing them.

"What? Are you too afraid to say what you have in mind?"

_Coward.__Yeah. Okay. So what?_

Neji's insult rolled off of her like a drop of water.

She took a deep breath. "Don't be conceited, Hyuga-san, I was only thinking that I do believe in your theory of fate."

Neji's wise, weary eyes lifted up in confusion. "What made you change your mind?"

"This and that," Neru answered vaguely.

"Seriously?!" Naruto screamed. "You believe all the bunch of crap?!"

"I do." She winced slightly, something or someone was pinching her arm. "I know what I am doing." She murmured in a low tone.

"Really?" Shisui whispered back. "Appears to me that you are giving them the wrong message."

"I suppose so."

"Most definitely so."

Neru may know the future of this world, but changing it was way harder than it seemed. Neji was babbling about how he could predict everyone's fate by analysing their heritage, their appearance and such.

Her eyes crinkled and she let her voice be heard. "Yes, fate does exist. However, Hyuga-san, having the ability of insight is nothing compare to the power to change the course of fate. I can predict yours; you will miserably lose in the finals. Heh, let me see how you change that."

Her last statement met with mix reactions.

"Now that's what I am talking about!" Naruto said.

"She's simply trying to aggravate him." Sasuke signed.

Shisui patted on her back-_That's better._

Neji's face was darkened by the lose strand of his hair. It was difficult to predict his mood. All of the sudden, she caught his mouth twitch in amusement. "I doubt it. That will never happen."

Neru was standing tall, challenging the pale boy, when the next thing she knew, Naruto was holding a lump of Hinata's blood, pointing his fist at Neji.

"**Don't get cocky!** **You are going down." **

_Something a hero would say._

His piercing bright blue eyes was burning with a steely determination that made her envy him more. He was death set on it and she knew that it would be granted. Neru shamefully had a very selfish thought at that very moment.

_If I were to become his friend, will I gain some benefits?_

Though fate had its own plan.

The wave of an uncontrollable destiny whirled and overflowed. You may be completely innocent or you may be slightly guilty, one thing was for sure, you would be swept into the storm.

.

.

.

.

* * *

**AN: Next chapter-Last match of the second stage: Shisui vs Gaara. **

**I absolutely adore background characters and strong female lead! **

**.**

**.**

**Reviews: **

**Lity-** I am really happy to receive your reviews! Thanks a lot! I use google translate to understand because my Spanish class isn't helping me at all. I hope that I have answered all your questions.

· Will she be friend with Naruto? I don't want to ruin anything. I can only say that she will have some friendly interaction with him.

· Did Anzen kill Akane? Yes, he did. According to his version of the story, he wanted to stop her suffering. She was stabbed by someone else before he gave her the final hit. The story related to her death is not yet finished. I will elaborate more in the future chapters.

· I don't understand the last question about the transformation jutsu because the translation was weird. :(

**A Reviewer-** I feel like I have improved. English is not my first language and a beta reader would help, but it's too time-consuming (Can't afford). I hope that despite my grammatical errors this fanfic is still enjoyable.

.

.

***I was supposed to publish this yesterday, but I was too tired from running outside (Sorry).**

**.**

**.**


	16. XV: A game of cat & mouse

_._

_._

_"__Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat's ear, but only the wisest of cats would think to look there."_

**_-Andrew Mercer_**

* * *

**_._**

**_._**

**_._**

** XV: A game of cat &amp; mouse **

**.**

Her poker-face broke down in the aftermath of the commotion. She realized that she had said something very daring, which made her flushed despite herself. Thanks god she had her mask on, so the redness on her cheeks wasn't so visible. Usually, her mind would start to shut down and go quiet…

And now apparently, it had.

"Earth to Logan." Shisui bumped her shoulder and offered her a lazy smile. On anyone else it would have been reassuring, but he seemed almost excited. In a few minutes, Shisui would go against Gaara, a remorseless psychopath with anger management and daddy issues (then again, who she was to talk with a father who committed uxoricide?) Out of all the people, her friend was the worst person to be paired with. He was blunt and had a very dry humor that upset a lot of people he met.

It was like adding fuel to the fire.

"Don't push his boutons." Neru demanded.

"I can't promise you that." He said.

Before she could express her disapproval, Hayate cut her off. "Well then, for the 11th match and the final match. The two last contestants of the prelim, please step forward!"

Shisui jumped down, landing near the referee. It was particularly impressive considering that he was not a sensor. His magic trick of moving around, to be honest, was simply due to old habit and due to exceptional senses of hearing, taste, smell and touch that she didn't know was humanly possible.

She leaned her elbows on the rail and slouched, eying the redheaded who shared a mutual sentiment with him about this whole ordeal. He was _literally _trembling in excitement. To anyone but Shisui, Gaara was particularly scary-looking. He had a fierce appeal and dark circles around his eyes like two hollows surrounding green disturbed pools. The scar on his forehead, apparently self-inflicted, was hard to miss, furtherly implying his unstable psyche.

For a moment they considered each other in silence. Neru didn't know who moved first, but Gaara's sand moved aggressively and wild, and Shisui ran so fast that her eyes could barely follow. He removed a tantō strapped in the back of his shoulder. Many slashes reached the jinchūriki and cracked the first layer of sand. A feral grin then etched on Gaara's face. That facial expression was so disturbing that goosebumps broke out all over her skin. The next hit of sand blew Shisui's feet off the ground and discarded his hat away.

Black messy curls were then revealed and glassy shy giggle chimed through the room. Hearts and blushes were everywhere. The laws of the universe had a weakness for ridiculously good-looking people, it seemed. Good for her, he was unrecognizable, no correlation between a dead person and a new face. No one expected the impossible or even the improbable.

.

* * *

.

.

Shisui fought to regain his balance.

He ducked and spun, feeling particles of sand irritated his skin. This was going to be tough. Gaara's attacks were wild and destructive as if it moved intuitively, based on his emotions. The odds of winning was certainly low if he added the redhead's impeccable mechanism of defence and his _own desire to hold back_. But perhaps even more important than that, he wanted to make his defeat believable. After helping Sasuke, the Hokage would keep close watch over him and his team, and everything could be used as evidence against them. He needed to appear weaker than he was, fooling the entire military division and lose the battle without any suspicion, no easy feat given he was doing better than most.

With a flick of his wrist, his sunglasses flew over the floor. He brought his tantō down, making it looked like a block of sand had knocked his sunglasses away. Hearing startled gasps from the spectators, he smirked.

_"__You sure have a thing for the dramatic." Neru had let out a long slow sigh._

"So you are blind…" Gaara said slowly, his voice deep and loud, which helped Shisui identify the exact place he was located, but that was not necessary, he could also hear him breathing.

"It's obvious. Can't you _see_?" Shisui replied, putting emphasis on the last word.

"You certainly talk a lot. You don't need your mouth. I'll get rid of it."

"_Yeah yeah_, let get on with the fight!"

A snarl escaped Gaara's lips. Shisui felt a rush of triumph- Being overtly cheery was very upsetting for many. He did it deliberately, taking advantage of others quick loss of control, and of their mindless and restless decisions. Before he knew it, something was holding his feet to the ground and quickly moved to his arms. His body was paralyzed like a hand was holding into him. Shisui slipped out of its grasp like a fish that was too swift to be caught. He could feel his chakra thrumming through him, his pulse quickened as did his breath.

It was afterward that the attacks intensified dramatically. He vanished ghostlike and then appeared and then disappeared again, each time he felt something descending on him. A cold whip of sand brushed near his face and he wrinkled his nose at the strong rotten and fishy stink of old blood. He could recognise that smell everywhere and deduced that the boy bought something that had killed many people for several _months? Years?_

Shisui entertained the thought of burning the gourd, then thought better of it.

Just like that, he let the next hits reach him and the words "I give up" were out of his mouth. A sharp pain shot through his body. He didn't have to fake a cry, a genuine one escaped his lips as he dropped to the ground. He was busy concentrating on centralizing his chakra, keeping his henge intact, that he didn't notice the change of breeze that promised another shot of pain.

However, he must admitted that he did suspect _this_ to happen.

_Slam! _The heavy sound came from Kokoro's staff, stopping whatever was going to hit him.

"He's blind and you are deafer than my dead husband!" Kokoro snapped.

"Get out of the way," Gaara ordered, probably white with rage.

"Take it easy," answered another voice, smooth and calm. "Let get out of here." Neru took advantage of the situation to drag him out. As she pulled him toward the exit, he could hear Gaara's words, meant as a serious threat to him. "You won't get away that easily! I'll have your head on a platter if that's the last thing I do!"

Shisui could feel Neru's fingers dug into his skin until he tightened his arm around her neck to make her stop.

"You are so dead." She said.

"Tell me something new."

So far, he had everything under control. His transformation jutsu, an advanced one at that, hadn't dispelled,_ yet_. Everyone seemed to be convinced about his performance. A win-win, he supposed. Neru craned her neck to peer round him for someone, perhaps a medic with enough experience to heal him, but not too much to discover his trickery.

"Thanks but we'll pass." She said, politely refusing the assistance of this particular medic.

"Why?" replied a masculine voice, sounding a little too gentle. Shisui was about to interfere and take his offer, but he closed his mouth into a thin line. He had heard him somewhere. It was that person with the nin-infos card, the same one who couldn't continue on the preliminary.

Yeah, _Kabuto_.

"I'll be frank. I want someone else." Neru held her ground. Shisui was surprise by the hint of judgement in her voice.

"I hardly think it would be necessary," Kabuto replied, with a hint of a smile. "Are you doubting my competence?"

She tensed up and her breathing controlled. Her behavior and mood had changed radically for the worse since they came back to Konoha. She usually came off with this maturity beyond her actual age. Well-mannered and open-minded, she was a fine judge of character, he must admit.

Now it became apparent that she struggled to find the right words to say, which made him lost all pretense of playing _dead_.

"Haven't you failed the Chunin exam like seven time?" Shisui gasped in mock disapproval. He shouldn't have join in the drama, but he had to stick up for her even though she was unreasonably judgemental.

He guessed he wasn't any better.

She made a dash, pulling him along. He heard a low satisfying chuckle and a _click _as she opened a door and went in to push him gently on something soft, a bed with a very comfy pillow he must say.

He sighed in bliss.

"You better don't fall asleep." She gripped his shoulders and shook him. He had to stay awake if he wanted to keep his henge in a flawless state. That aside, worry had prevented her from leaving him when she was asked to return to the battle zone.

"Aww." Shisui basked her a smile. "That's so sweet of you."

He could picture her rolling her eyes.

"You are not cute at all. I'm getting out," she draw in indifferently, but it was clear that she was relieved by his gentle goofiness.

As soon as the door closed, he straightened up. "You can come out now."

"Maa", the man sounded embarrassed. "You knew? Your blindness seems real to me. Or it is, among many other things, appallingly false." He didn't know Hatake Kakashi on a personal level, but he had being on his anbu's squad once and every Uchiha knew _of him_, a fake with the transplanted Sharingan eye.

The last person had left the room as if it was under his command. Shisui could easily put two and two together.

"I see nothing, but I sense that this is not what you are here for," Shisui said.

"Very perceptive indeed. Well, I'll get to the point. Could you enlighten me on why you are using a henge right now?"

"I don't see the significance. I am playing by the rules, Sir."

Kakashi shook his head. "Paramnesia has never been to the Chunin exam before. So no one is officially a Chunin on paper, you see. There is a high possibility that one of you or even all of you are on _jōnin's_ level."

_Well_, Hatake lived up to his name.

"Eh…I wonder…? Still, this is not forbidden." As long as they were not Chunins, they could participle in the examination even though they were stronger. "So?"

"Let's make a short trip to the Torture and Interrogation force."

"What?-"Shisui frowned heavily, taken aback.

"Cat got your tongue?" Kakashi chuckled suddenly. "Just kidding. I do have to give you my gratitude for helping one of my student. We can pretend that nothing has been said between us if you pretend that you have not seen his curse mark."

_He wants me to not tell anyone else about this, heh?_

"Consider it already done." Shisui nodded. "This is for that kid's sake as well as mine. Believe it or not, but we are in the same boat, Hatake-san."

.

* * *

.

.

Prudently, Neru chose to stand far away from Gaara when she came back. The victors were all gathered together to pick up a piece of paper, with a number written on it, as they reached in this particular box. Her face was completely blank as she flipped her paper. Needless to make too much out of it. It was one thing to know what lay ahead of her and another altogether to know the details of such events. Like who in their right mind would remember which numbers were picked by everyone?

She waited patiently for more explanation. They had one month to prepare for the finals; to learn about the enemy and to get stronger.

"7." She said to Ibiki and he wrote it down. She was overwhelmed with the number of characters she met during the Chunin Exam. As she twisted her neck to observe them once more, she couldn't help, but feel a strange tug of interest and anticipation that cracked and sparked inside her. All nine _adversaries _were all grouped like a pack of hyenas.

_Shino_-an entomologist, a bug lover and above all an Aburame. Insects resided in his body and served it as a nest. She do not wish to be his opponent. She had thought of how painful it would be if insects with sharp teeth munched her skin and bones.

_Sasuke_-made her slightly harder to breath. Guilt trickled through her each time she thought of leaving him that night to face all those horrors alone. So she was actually relieved to see him still sane and alive.

_Dosu_-A Sound shinobi, one of Orochimaru loyal followers. He made her pity him a little bit more.

_Naruto_\- was all over the place. He had a lot of useless big moves. He may be an airhead, but she had took a liking to him. She could be bias due to his status as the hero.

_Kankurō-_ A puppeteer usually had an excellent control of chakra. He was sly and very tricky.

_Shikamaru-_A Nara, another genius. _Damn_, those sort of people were everywhere. The lazy type was new to her though. He may be smart, but if he was too lazy to learn and practice, then he was not well-informed nor physically strong.

_Temari-_had a foul mouth and a wild air around her. Her wind affinity may cause a problem. Neru had to buy lots of chakra's blades and changed her ammunition.

_Neji-_had a sickening obsession with fate. Sagacious, self-centered. They had a clash of personality. Her bullets wouldn't work against his byagugan, maybe ninjutsu would be better.

_Gaara-_lived on the edge or over the edge_. _Better stay away from him.

"Alright now, I will reveal to you the final tournament!" The Hokage said, surprising everyone, except herself. She widened her eyes on cue.

Ibiki finally shown them a diagram of the matches. Exactly ten people had won, so there would be five match in the first round.

She immediately locked eyes with her future opponent and they quickly averted their gaze. Plain and steady in his gaze, Nara Shikamaru seemed to be annoyed, but quickly came to term with the arrangement.

_Really now? _She blew the hair out of her eyes in discontent.

When the Hokage dismissed them, she gave him a respectful bow though he wasn't watching. _Better safe than sorry, _she thought. After Kokoro gave her a sign that she was getting back to the hotel, Neru walked, with long strides and fast paces in the hall, to reach the clinical white room she had slept in earlier. The room was almost empty, with the exception of a few medics, pacing around and cleaning up their supplies. Her eyes searched for Lee, but he wasn't there anymore. Shisui on the other hand was laying comfortably on the bed, eyes completely shut, but she knew he wasn't asleep.

"Say did you meet Sasuke-"

Shisui put a finger on his lip. She took the hint immediately and felt silent. "Shhh. They'll hear you." She studied him quizzically, thinking that he may have a connection, in some sense, with Sasuke's not-so-lack of Sharingan. He asked her to make it more private. He should have known that her genjutsu skills still left a lot to be desired.

"I can't." She said after trying it out.

"You think too much," Shisui reminded her. "You have to feel, not think. It's intuitive."

Must he always be so vague? The way he explained like it was easy was enough to make Neru's own attempt looked terribly childish. Resolved, she closed her eyes, feeling her chakra burning inside her. She made the hand signs and then opened one eye. "Still can't."

"Patience. I'll tell you later then."

She would get to the bottom of this, but she was too exhausted now. She then proceeded to drag him out of the tower. They slipped into the night, jumping on the rooftop with every little energy they had left. The village looked bleak, shrouded in an unpleasant heat. A warm chill cut through and she unbuttoned her collar, knowing that she would have a hard time falling asleep.

"Last question. Did you write something on the paper test?" She wondered.

He would answer smaller questions at least, right?

"You're too curious." He said. She was pretty sure that he meant it as a compliment. "No. I didn't know the questions. So I wrote rubbish. It's better than chicken scratch if I am lucky."

He let out a painful groan.

"Are you not feeling well?" She poked his cheek. "Is there something troubling you?"

"Heh, remember last question? Whatever. I feel slightly feverish. That's all."

That night or the following nights, Shisui wouldn't get a wink of sleep. Sometimes, Gaara would follow him everywhere like a bad scent. Sometimes, they would be surrounded by Anbu.

When Inabi and Shisui were finally ready to tell her everything, she was bitter, but knowing that she had bigger secrets, she was able to repress it. Was she too untrustworthy? Was she too young? Their decision not to tell her was more an avoidance than kindness. What they had done to Sasuke would trigger a lot of tension and suspicion. Did they caught Orochimaru's eyes yet? What if it set off some chain of reaction other than what had been done? For someone who praised herself to be a good liar, she was ashamed of not detecting Inabi's lie when he quit the preliminaries. His reason was not due to his empathy for children, it was more due to his sense of duty to investigate Orochimaru.

Inabi pinched the bridge of his nose. "Orochimaru is capable of great evil. His goal is likely the same as ours."

Given the situation they had to complete their mission faster than the malevolent Sanin.

They had to bring Sasuke back to his rightful home, back to Paramnesia, _no matter what_. She hoped it would be before the invasion. The two oldest Uchihas had no idea that the net was closing around Konoha, and she had no intention of letting them know.

.

.

.

* * *

**AN: Who will come out alive of the cat and mouse chase? That's for you to find out in the next chapter of Science fiction. **

**Reviews-**

**Lity- **Hi! It makes my day to know that someone is looking forward to the story. :)

**Do Uchihas use henge in their new place? **No, they do not, because they don't need to. Their new place is an island isolated from the entire world. Paramnesia is a new village, of only a few years and the villagers consist of only themselves, of Uchiha survivors, for now.

**lizyeh2000- **Thank you for your support! ;)

**Moonacre BunBun-** I appreciate very much your viewpoint. It's very satisfying to know how it makes you feel and some of your reviews are very funny, very entertaining to read! (͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖)

.

.

.


End file.
